Forged in Iron, Forged in Remnants
by Eternal War
Summary: Left to die within the Vault, Ozpin gives his last thoughts and hopes, wishing for his mission to not left incomplete. His body broken, he reaches out to anything that will listen to his pleas. Fate answers him, though not in the way he would expect. Rated M for Violence starting at chapter two, an action adventure in an attempt to tie to RWBY volume four as it is being developed.
1. Chapter 1

The Vault

A sanctuary for the knowledge of untold years, holding numerous artifacts and treasures of Remnant. It was also home to one of Beacon Academy's greatest secrets, and one of his greatest crimes. Far down into the looming catacombs of the vault, lay a stasis chamber, holding a very important and peculiar person; The Maiden of Fall.

Her she has rested for several months, held frozen in stasis mere moments from passing on into the afterlife by a near impossible saving, hidden from the rest of the world. Her visage is mired by a tinted green glow and the decaying skin upon the left side of her face, giving way to a shattered like appearance, a merciless wound from her attackers. Torch fires lined the great structure of the vault, the emerald like materials reflecting and glowing. It was this glow that casted the three figures standing before the stasis pod and its machine.

The first figure was that of the Heroic Jaunne Arc, his back turned towards the other two as he gazed out, weapons in hand at the huge opening of the Vault, back towards it's entrance. A secondary pod lay next to the first, connected by machine and tubing overhead to the one holding the Maiden. The second figure of the group, setting her weapons aside, entered the standing pod, long red hair following the movements of her head as she continued her short lived conversation with the third member of the group. The stasis pod closed, embracing the second for the gift it was about to bestow. The receiver being none other than Phyrra Nikos.

The third figure leaned over the keyboard resting in-between the two pods, his fingers imputing and calibrating codes and algorithms for the purpose of the machine. The ground above trembled, quaking at the approach of the unknown. The third member quickened his pace and with a sad look in his eyes he looked at Nikos, asking for confirmation to begin the action, a justification to his coming atrocity. She nodded, and with further willing from the final figure vocalized it, her eyes full of determination and sorrow. With a final sequence of keys, the final figure raised his hand, and glanced once more a Nikos.

The third member brought his hand down, bringing the machine into action. The first pod raised up, bring its cargo to view as a orange glow surrounded the Maiden. The third member took a step back, eyes switching between the Maiden and Nikos, sorrow apparent on his face. The Maiden's eyes, despite the stasis, fluttered open slightly, her head trying to move towards the third member as a solid liquid flowed out the back of her stasis pod and up the wall, filtering before it came back down into Nikos's pod. Upon the liquid entering the pod, being pushed into her aura by an intense mental and physical pressure, Nikos let out a continuous cry of agony and despair, the transfer raking her body with pain.

Arc turned around, calling out her name as he looked at the machine and the man beside it, unable to do anything as the third figure looked solely at Nikos now. The final member broke his gaze, looking somewhere far off as if in a trance before uttering three words.

"I'm so sorry." Ozpin said aloud his eyes of inner turmoil and regret.

The process continued for a few seconds, Nikos's cries giving way to silent gasp of agony and constant shifting within the pod. Her pain was ceased however, when a swift moving arrow penetrated the glass of the first pod, and impaled the Maiden's chest. Warning sirens echoed from the machine as the Maiden within glowed brighter, before her form was fully enshrouded in the orange glow. With a sudden burst of force, the orange glow was ripped from the maiden, her form disappearing as it was sucked back to her killer, Cinder Fall. The raw power was absorbed by Cinder, who slowly started to float as the power of the Maiden flowed around her. Jaune stepped forth, raising his arm to strike despite the protest of Ozpin, before he was thrown back by a massive explosion of flame.

Cinder floated above them, a small smile lit upon her face. She looked at the three, not even glancing as the door from the second pod was launched towards her. With a slight movement of her hand it was deflected, her appearance one of absolute care free. Nikos readied her weapons, already charging forth but was stopped by the strong arm of Ozpin reaching in front of her.

"Go, find help, find anyone." His tone was absolute, no argument was to be brokered despite what she felt. Jaune got back up from his position, and sprinted aside the wall, Nikos forming up with him as they hustled past Cinder, who spared them only a look as they travelled by before returning her attention to Ozpin. The two stood and floated, watching each other, until the toll of the far off elevator was heard.

Instantly the two were a fury of aura as Cinder and the Headmaster clashed in a multitude of blows and trades, orange and green slamming against each other in the great expanse of the Vault. The two smashed spell to spell, attack to attack, to where it would seem it was even. The trades were broken by Ozpin, who increased his speed to burst forth at Cinder, landing multiple, simultaneous and somewhat devastating strikes at cinder before punching her directly, slamming her back to where she placed a hand to stop her speed with a glowing gold trail underneath. Instantly she rose, and with it the pure gold rose up condensing into Ice shards before being lanced towards Ozpin. The headmaster in a great burst of speed blocked all of the projectiles but was dismayed to find Cinder had rose several feet in the air, a great glowing orb of fire and aura expanding behind her. Eyes ablaze, the energy condensed before her in a smaller orb, before firing. With great hast Ozpin slammed his cane into the ground beneath him, a glowing green orb surrounding him as a pure beam of flame shot forth, curling around the orb.

He took steps forward, his shield pushing forward against the solid lance of fire. He got half way towards her, before the power was too great, and with a might glow of white, the Headmaster's shield broke, and he was flung backwards at the stasis machine, his body slamming into it. Cinder, in a moment of spite despite having already rendered her opponent unconscious and soon to die, trailed her lance of fire once more, destroying parts of the machine that would once be Ozpin's salvation, into his destruction.

The machine sparked and glowed a bright white, sirens blaring as Cinder turned away and floated towards the elevator, away from Ozpin's crumpled form. She blasted open the doors, revealing the elevator shaft. She floated within, before turning about, to see the gigantic glow of white and bright purple taking shape. A smile formed upon her lips, before she cancelled her aura into her palms, a glow surrounding them as she rocketed up the shaft, leaving Ozpin to his assured destruction.

* * *

The blaring was all he could hear, that and he could barely see past the glow despite his closed eyelids. The machine was going to self destruct, he knew, and with it, it would kill him. He had failed, but he had at least bought the others time. time to prepare, to escape. He hoped that the students were safe, that Glidia, Crow, or Ironwood had been able to save them. He, in his final moments, reached out to fate, out to anything, asking for them, pleading for them to be saved from his failings. That his work could be finished, and that he would not die in shame, not die with his mission incomplete, for someone to take up the torch.

Fate answered him.

The machine stopped blaring, but the glow kept strong, seeming to increase if that was even possible. It reached a waxing phase, and then stopped, only to release a shockwave so large one could mistake it for a small earth quake.

The glow spread apart, less centralized as the shaking stopped. Ozpin opened his eyes to find three solid white glows around him, no longer glaring but still rather condensed. The first was to his left, the second on his right, both human sized in height. The third one was in front of him, this one much larger, more in size to an alpha Beowulf.

The glow to his left shaded in first, giving way to the form of a lightly armored man. Bronze spear and round shield in hand, followed by a leather pieced skirt and sandals, to be topped by a full bronze chest piece, abdominal muscles hammered into its design. the top of his head was covered by a bronze helmet, revealing eyes and a strip of the mouth and nose, a bright red plume was atop it, its color held out in the fading light from his glow. Tan skin held firm in form, power radiating in him as he stood, spear in hand, shield in front as a defensive stance was formed.

the glow to Ozpin's right solidified next, revealing a much more armored figure. Whereas the first warrior held shield and spear, this one kept a shield, though of a more triangular pattern, his weapon of choice a war hammer. His form was steel armor and chainmail, full encompassing his body including a boxy helm a eye slits and several holes for breathing. The chest plate was covered in a tabard that reached down to the person's knees, a white cross embedded upon the black cloth. The war hammer was held by the shaft, as if in salute or present to cheer.

Ozpin's and the two new arrivals attention were snatched away by the forming and solidifying of the final glow. It was completely black, akin to the robe of the second member and intimidating tall, around eleven feet at Ozpin's best guess. This new arrival was completely encased by armor that seemed infallible, large armored boots leaving imprints upon the floor as they connected to a belt with large leather strips. The belt was imprinted with an open white hand, surrounded by a cog, large outstanding containers were attached to the belt, larger than a person's hands. From behind the belt rose three cables back dropped by another layer of armor, leading up into the central chest piece that looked immensely thick. Embedded with metal studs and what looked to be a double headed Eagle, the chest piece gave way to a large collar, and the upper part of a helmet, which had glowing blue eye pieces.

The helmet gave way to a large covering, no doubt to keep from attacks from behind, the left corner having what appeared to be sensors or light systems. The covering branched off to two large double plated shoulder pieces, the bottom pieces having similar leather straps hanging down akin to those upon the belt. The arm pieces were proportioned equally to the rest of the body, massive gauntlets covering the arms and glove like hands to where the figures weapons drew the eyes of all three present. In the left hand rest a massive firearm Ozpin realized, with two barrels. The first one looked to have a huge bore, with holes upon the sides of the muzzle to expel flash. The other one was longer than the first which resided next to it. This one had a smaller bore, though not by much, however the muzzle was larger and had more separated ventilations on it, as if it was to focus the firing round. A gigantic ammunition hopper rest upon the under belly of the fire arm, and it was the same figure of those that rested upon the Giant's belt. The secondary was completely different, and much more out-landish.

Where as the Giant's armor was proportioned somewhat equally, the right hand of the thing was a different story. This gauntlet was more like an over sized glove, large and immensely heavy looking. The fingers were bigger than most people's hands, and even then, if the giant so wished, he most likely could kill someone just by punching them with such a massive fist, aura or not. The item beneath the glove attracted Ozpin's attention next. Upon the under belly of the glove rested what appeared to be a chainsaw blade, save for instead of the blade being fully open the top half was partially covered by a guard for the fist, its revving sound filling the room. What brought more surprise to Ozpin's face was that the entire fist, including the chainsaw like under weapon, was glowing an intense blue. He was so shocked to the giants weapons that he did not notice that the fire arm had been leveled at his prone form, and by extension, the other two arrivals.

The three arrivals were at a standoff, their weapons readied and moving in targets as they circled around the lying form of Ozpin. They said nothing as they slowly moved, the only sound being the clanking of armor and the heavy footfalls of the Giant. His body unresponsive an severely damaged, Ozpin could do nothing physically to break up the standoff, but he could mentally do it.

"Stop, whoever you three are, I wish for no one else to die this accursed day." He spoke. The three looked down upon him, as if just noticing him there.

"Where am I? I stood with my kinsmen upon the pass, only to be knocked away by the overwhelming bodies of the Persians. I fell from the cliff, still stabbing at them as I fell only to end up here. Where is my glorious death!?" spoke the first, his confusion and anger present.

"Where am I? I stood with the brotherhood upon the blood soaked sand, our weapons held high as another victory was bestowed upon us by God above! We had driven the heathen Arabs back and were prepared for our next conquest to take back The Holy Land!" yelled the second, his pride and glory evident.

"Where am I?" We battled the Daemons of the unholy god of Fate and I was but a strike away from killing a greater daemon before I was snatched away. My absence will not be off much affect to the battle for my brothers will hold firm against the daemonic tide and destroy it, as is the way of the Xth!" the Giant boomed, its fervor and might echoing among the grand chamber.

"I can tell you were you stand, but for how you arrived here, I do not know." Ozpin spoke, his voice a mere whisper compared to the three warriors.

"Then speak. I have no time to waste." The Giant replied, its voice unwavering.

"You are upon the planet of Remnant, specifically the city of Vale. Above you rest Beacon academy, once the greatest academy among the four kingdoms, and you are within the Vault, before me, its head master." Ozpin said, his voice holding some form of willpower despite his cracked frame.

"Once?" The first asked.

"It lies in ruins above us, due to treachery, deceit, and an enemy long thought dead." He replied.

"Remnant? What of Earth, What of the Holy land?" the second asked.

"I know not of a place called Earth, or a holy land, for we here in the four kingdoms are mainly without faith save in ourselves and life in general, save for some who pray to the maidens, but overall religion is not very large or common." He said, though something felt off.

"I know not of a planet names Remnant, but alas, your lack of faith is disturbing, to think that you are so far from the God Emperor's Holy light is more than concerning. Being that the Throne on Terra does not reach such a place yet is neigh unbelievable, and for it to not be touched by chaos or other Xenos near impossible. Tell me heathen, what is this Schola for, if it is so prestigious to be thought as the best upon the planet." The Giant spoke at him, its tone commanding.

"Beacon academy is home to Huntsmen and Huntresses, who guard and protect the kingdoms of Humanity and Faunus from the ever encroaching Darkness. The Darkness is pure evil, physically manifesting into monsters that we have termed Grim. They are seemingly without number and have been known to feed on all forms of negative emotion, leading them to hunt humanity down for having such feelings. We would be near hopeless if not for the use of Dust, a powerful array of minerals that interact with Hunters Auras, the physical manifestation of what we believe to be our souls. Selective people have them, causing the four academies to be formed through the four kingdoms to train these soon to be hunters in hopes of turning the tide against the Grim in an endless struggle of life and death. Unfortunately, the tide has turned in the Grimm's favor and this time, there may not be a way to stop it." Ozpin spoke, holding the attention of the three warriors, though his whisper soon fell off into a rasp, his body barely being apple to stand anymore action.

"I will tell you more, but only if you can ferry me away from this soon to be infested place, and find me aid." He continued. Hopefully their lust for knowledge would help him live to see another day.

"Fine, for the sake of reason and knowledge I will help you, but realize this, if I believe I am being played a fool or being lead into some form of Daemonic trap, I will not hesitate to kill all of you." The Giant spoke, before stepping forward towards Ozpin. He opened his large palm, the blue glow dissipating and the chainsaw turning off before scooping up the Headmaster like an infant. His green form contrasted to the midnight black of the Giant, before being turned around. "Where is the nearest exit?" The voice boomed.

"Head towards that elevator shaft, then take a left, there is a secret passage that will lead us out of Beacon, and into the mountains." He said before continuing. "from there we shall find away from this fallen place. We will head south, following along the shore heading west until we arrive in Vacuo, one of the other four kingdoms. We must travel quiet and quick, for my enemies, and now, by extension I suppose, yours will be out to kill us all for their evil master. Most of them however, will assume I am dead, so we can use this to our surprise."

"Do not think so far ahead grey hair one, for even if we do leave this place unharmed, if our questions go in-answered for too long, will find someone who will, your allies or not." the first said, before hefting his spear.

"I agree with him, we sign no contract until we have more explanations." the second one confirmed.

"Then I advise that getting me healed would do well for all of you, not just myself." Ozpin spoke, a small smile appearing on his lips. The two nodded, before moving, their foot falls soon to be over shadowed by the lumbering giant, its speed, though seemingly slow, out striding the lesser armored two, creating a marching pace. Though Ozpin did not know the combative abilities of his friends, he felt a reasonable feeling within his gut that said they would be able to handle themselves if they crossed any Grimm or foes along their journey.

 **Author's Note: Re-written: Hello readers, Eternal War here, I just wanted to say that I am glad I got some coverage within the first 24 hours, and it makes me really happy. I decided to come back and ad a little bit of detail here and there, as well as fix most of the grammatical and spelling errors, as well as eliminate most of the repetitive statements or descriptions. Just so its clear (If you haven't figured it out already) that the new arrivals are a Spartan, a Crusader, and an Iron Hand's** **Cataphractii Terminator Captain. Also the Terminator may or may not have to do with a certain competitive character from the chapter in Tabletop, who may be nick named PRIME. If you do not find rape amusing and complete cheese unacceptable, do not look up "Chapter Master Smash Fucker" and its final lvl known as "SMASH FUCKER PRIME". Hope you guys like the story, and if you want to see it continue I'll update by next Monday night.**


	2. Chapter 2 A New Journey

The steel doors that lead out of the vault were decrypt, old with age, looking far out of place in the emerald green glow of the vault with their black lining and rusted handles. They look almost unmovable, and his sensors showed that due to the lack of access and maintenance that they were, for a mortal man.

"You sure this is the way out? those doors look as if they have not been opened in ages." The one too his left said, the plume of his helm waving around as he turned to look at the man within his arms. Ozpin slowly turned, head lying against the immovable pauldren of the Cataphractii Terminator armor, his frame slowly shifting within his massive palm.

"It is the right way, but there has been no reason to use such an exit before." the headmaster managed to speak, before his hand curled into a fist and was swiftly brought up to cover the series of body wracking coughs. The man stepped back, his head bowed but still what little of his gaze could be seen still curled in askance.

"Then how are we suppose to open such doors?" His head turning away from Ozpin to look back at the doors, as if expecting them to move on their own will.

"You will not be able too, I however, shall." The smaller man looked back towards him, the deep baritone still unsettling him. No doubt he thought that no man should be of this size. It mattered not, for there was work to be done in the Emperor's name. "you two shall hold him aloft while I open this door."

Lowering his arm, the men on both sides of him approached slowly, both putting a shoulder under Ozpin's arms. They heaved him upwards, off of the resting place of the gigantic palm, the headmaster breathing being a bit labored from the unexpected movement. "Next time please give me a second to re-adjust before we do a shift like that." He said.

"You had enough time, but we must get going, stand back. I advise you cover your ears. " The giant spoke, his chainfist sparking back to life before the blue glow encompassed the weapon once more. The two men took a pace back, lifting Ozpin between them as the giant lumbered around them, fist raised as he approached the door. A mere foot away a terrible roar erupted in the hall and for a second Ozpin had thought that the Grim had finally made it down before he noticed the sound was coming from the giant himself. The bottom saw like appendage had activated inside of the power field, and already was pulled back.

With a swift punch forward towards the bottom of the rusted door, the chain fist not halting as he pulled upwards, the power field craving into the metal like butter as it glowed hot and warped around the blade's path. The two men holding Ozpin up averted their eyes, the new source of light in the room doing little to help their dimmed eyesight, Ozpin himself however was unable to do so, and the last bit of his aura held onto him, somewhat shielding the glaring light from damaging his vision. The shrieking of twisting metal lasted but a few moments thankfully, before the revving of the chain blade stopped and was replaced by the thunderous boom as the Giant used his enlarged fist to smash the weakened door apart with a might blow all the way though.

The doors gave way, flying down the now revealed corridor, or rather cave opening. the giant turned back around, walking back to the three awed onlookers before placing his no deactivated chainfist out once more, palm open and low gesturing for them to return Ozpin. the two men, shaking themselves free of their shock slowly hefted Ozpin back into the palm of the giant, albeit a bit more slowly, as if the palm would re-energize and disintegrate their one guide away from here. The man on the right spoke this time, his helmet pitched upwards as he spoke to the Giant's face plate.

"I have never seen a weapon such as that before Giant, tell me, is it a holy relic?" He asked, tabard shifting slightly as a small draft came from the cave's entrance. The giant looked at him as Ozpin settled back into the secure grasp of the chain fist.

"It is indeed a relic," the Giant boomed," one of the chapter's oldest ones, dating back far to the days of the 31st millennium. Several of my predecessors have wielded it dating back into the legacy of our chapter, its name is _The Adamantine Fist_ , and I am its wielder." Turning about, the Giant continued forward now, slowly ducking to avoid the frame of the enlarged opening. From the left side of the giant's armor shined a bright light, piercing forth into the darkness of the cave, revealing dirt and stone that stretched for a small eternity. The two men swiftly followed after, the knight continuing to ask questions.

"But is it Holy? and by extension, are you?" He said, his voice conflicted.

"The _Adamantine Fist_ is indeed a holy weapon, blessed by the priest hood of Mars and forged in the light of Sol, in the shadow of Holy Terra. As to answer your second question, I am in fact holy in my own right for I am an Adeptus Astartes, The Holy God Emperor's Angels of Death." He boomed aloud, the new walls of the cave pathway muffling his words to a small degree. This caused the other warrior to speak up.

"So there are, more of you?" He asked, his voice filled with a bit of hesitation, and maybe fear. They kept walking the two smaller men at a marching pace to match with the Giant's strides. The clanking of armor echoing within the cave as the giant formed an answer.

"Yes, but they are not here," He started," my brothers within the chapter are a small force, only 1000 marines strong, yet there are hundreds of chapters within the Imperium."

"H-hundreds?" The soldier gulped.

"Indeed, you should think it as a blessing of the Emperor that we are allies of circumstance."

"The Emperor?" the knight asked, his helmet twisting to the side. "You referred to him as a god. You also speak of the Imperium was it?"

"Indeed, The Emperor, our guardian and protector, once walked amongst us in the early days of the 31st Millenium, where he led his 18 sons, the Primarchs, and their legions, among the stars and conquered the galaxy for the span of several decades planet by planet, system by system Until the awful days of the Horus Heresy. The after math of the Heresy left the Imperium severely weakened, half the Primarchs had turned traitor and several had either died or disappeared. The Emperor was mortally wounded in the aftermath of the final battle, and was sat upon the golden throne by his loyal sons. There he has sat for ten millennia, constantly guarding humanity from the forces of Chaos. " The giant said, the small description entrancing the men around him. "I have spoke on my history, it is only due that I hear your own." The warrior was first to react.

"I come from the city state of Sparta, known throughout the lands for its powerful warriors. We were... are lead by King Leonidas, who had taken 299 of us to hold a pass that the invading Persians were using to invade our lands. They heavily outnumbered us but held the pass several rows deep and shoulder to shoulder, it was the second day in, and we almost no losses. I unfortunately during that day was pushed aside from the line as we broke and charged, and pushed off the side of the pass and was on the fall to the craggy rocks below when I was blinded by a deep white light, and now I am here amongst you." He said, his sentencing accented and chipped, as if the words were not well suited for his mouth.

The knight looked across the giant's stride at his less armored counterpart before speaking, "Ancient Greece, but that was over a thousand years ago, before the founding of the Christianity, how is that even possible!?" He asked, the metal helm tinting his shouting a bit.

"I would not think too hard about it if I were you, for if it was the work of the warp that sent us here, then it you would be a heretic and a madman to try and understand it to such a degree as black and white." The giant said, his helmet looking towards the knight. the knight in response leaned backwards, away from the giant before facing forwards and continuing to walk. Ozpin shifted within the Giant's arm.

"Well now that you three have become somewhat acquainted with each other's back stories, I believe it would be somewhat better if you at least shared names." He said, his body holding back a series of coughs from what the Giant could tell.

"I suppose it would do well." spoke the soldier, looking more towards Ozpin. "I am Sabastian Nassos of Sparta." He said, his spear clicking on the floor as they walked.

"Well met Sir Nassos. I am Adelger Rathenau the Mighty, I hail from the kingdom of Germany, in the Name of the Lord I shall stand with you." The knight spoke, his free hand making the gesture of a cross over his chest as they walked.

"I am Papheus Issoctus, Captain of the Third company, hailing from the Iron Hand's chapter and our home world of Medusa. I tread where the Emperor so decrees, and I will purge all heretics and xenos until the galaxy is once again safe." The Giant boomed, his voice echoing in the cave as he raised his firearm upwards in salute.

"Medusa?" Sabastian inquired, "as in the tales of the dreaded Snake Woman who turned her foes to stone?" He shook with some fear at the remembrance of the myth.

"Nay, for it is just the name of our home world, the name lasting from when it was settled by humanity in the Dark Age of Technology." Papheus said, helmet looking towards Sabastion as they walked. This time Adelger spoke.

"Home world?" His tinted voice showing curiosity of the subject.

"Yes, from which the chapter is strongest, from there we carry out across the stars in companies, bolstering the forces of the Imperium and defeating its foes upon planets and in space." Papheus said, looking back towards the leaning form of Adelger.

"As in how many planets and how could an empire be so large enough to fight multiple battles on more than one planet." He asked, his hidden eyebrows slowly lifting up in worry.

"The Imperium of Man encompasses thousands of star systems holding millions of planets and an almost un-countable mass of human beings, all in service to our lord, The God Emperor of Mankind." Papheus iterated, his voice somewhat monotone and ominous.

"I suddenly feel incredibly small." Sabastion spoke.

"Indeed." agreed Adelger.

"That's, that's a lot to even imagine, not even think about." Ozpin said, his eyes starring somewhat distractedly ahead. "How do you handle it?"

"It is just simple fact, cold and hard like Iron, the same type of Iron that I will use to fight and kill any foe in the name of the Emperor." Papheus said, turning his helmet forward as well.

The small conversation fell quite as each warrior was left to his thoughts within the cave.

* * *

They had been marching for at least three hours, Ozpin thought to himself, still nestled within the cold grasp of the Chainfist. He had over that time managed to move a bit more and even little himself a bit as his aura slowly peiced itself and his damaged body back together. Several of his broken bones were healing quite nicely, and he had managed to cast himself about in a way that he presumed would not heal it incorrectly, similar to his hip, which unfortunately had also been broken in the conflict with Cinder. He bit his lip in pain as he rolled his body to the side, eyes crawling up the stone and dirt of the cave walls.

Only for his pupils to widen in fear as they crossed over the three slashes and snarling wolf head painted in dark red.

"Stop here." He said, his voice just above a whisper. Instantly Papheus halts, the other two taking a second to drop out of their march, forming a semi circle around Ozpin's form. He raised his hand slowly, pointing at the sigil marked upon the wall, the three men following his gesture.

"What does that icon mean?" Sabastion asked, spear leaning forward in a guard stance.

"That, is a marking, a territory marking to be exact, of a radical group of Faunus who degree that the only way to have rights are by killing off the human race. They are part of the reason Beacon fell, and have been the tool of many of my adversaries movements within the kingdoms." Ozpin spoke, before quickly adding on, "Before you ask, Faunus are essentially humans with animalistic traits, and I for one have always thought they should be treated equally and justly, but these 'activist' as they call themselves are nothing but terrorist."

"Mutants." the form of Paphues rumbled low, near to a growl. "I can already infer that there will be little chance of slipping past them and considering there have been no branches leading away from our path the only way to get out of these caves is by going through them, am I correct?"

"Most likely, I had a small feeling that this would be one of their hide outs, but never got time to check, I can however, tell you that once we get past them, that the exit should not be very far off. From there we can continue to travel by the shore."

"It is settled then, I shall advance and remove these threats, you two will stay here and guard the headmaster. I shall return soon." Papheus boomed, lowering his arm in order for the two men to once again grab a hold of Ozpin, hoisting him up. Free of his charge, the armored form of Papheus moved forward, slowly rounding the corner, before disappearing from sight.

* * *

Dirt and rocks crumbled beneath the massive foot falls of the Captain. He rounded the corner, moving twenty paces forward in the darkness before he saw the first tinges of light, the source setting a orange glow upon the dirt. Though the source was small he could hear the small crackling of roasting wood from here, and the small shuffles it was making as it got pushed around. His footsteps increased as he approached, titanic legs working alongside servo enhanced armor to bring him up to the cruising speed of a small motor vehicle. He rounded the bend with a sharp turn, barely losing any speed, but with just enough time to see his first victim.

The mutant had been huddled close to the fire, its form covered by white carapace armor and leggings on top of what appeared to be almost formal exercise attire. A hood hang heavy over his head and his face was covered by a half mask that covered its eyes and nose. Thermal scans revealed however that there were two protrusions at the top of its head, small and stubby. Ears. It brought a snarl to the Captains covered face as he approached, the figure having nearly no time to shift from his place from the fire. It did however, give the target enough time to cry out in alarm.

The cry lasted for less than a half a second before the unstoppable force of the Captain's several ton armor rammed into the Faunus, the mutant's head smashed open by the force of rising knee cap. The physical stress popped the target's head like a melon with a sickening 'phloof' sound, the remaining force sending the body flying for a few feet before it crashed to the group unmoving, right before it was trampled on by the Captain's massive boot.

The Captain looked around as he moved over the deceased mutant, realizing that the fire watching mutant had been a sentry to a much larger opening. It's dying cry had roused several warriors and gained the attention of several beast masked foes. Several of them were armed and many more were rousing. If he had to make a guess the total number of enemies in the gigantic chamber ranged in the upper 70's. The snarl had increased beneath the helmet, the thought that such a disease should have been allowed to fester like this was un-forgivable. Now, however was not the time to worry about such things, for the enemy was here, and he was upon them.

The Captain's movement slowed a fraction as he angled himself to the closest group of mutants, a pack of five that had been sitting around a fire pit and outside of a few tents, weapons near-by as they ate from canvas bags. He had caught them un prepared, and at an optimal time. _The Adamantine Fist_ activated at his will, the power field consuming the fist a millisecond before the roaring of the Chainblade's engine engulfed the sound of mutant cries of alarm and shock.

He reached the fire place before the fire mutant could raise its weapon, the chainfist punching through the upper chest of the target, the fist itself disintegrating skull bones flesh and sinew as it passed through, blood instantly vaporizing when it got close to the fist. Several of the drops flew past however, coating the Captain's armor in a nice shining red. These drops would not stay alone forever though, for as the fist past through the first target the chainblade bore into the second with a sickening roar of serrated whirling teeth chewing through flesh. The mutant cried out in absolute agony as the blade went from the side of the lowest rib, before continuing its path upwards in a swing, going all the way to carve into the heart, the organ making a pop as it was detonated by the extreme force of the blade. A fine mist sprinkled into nothingness around the powered fist, but almost instantly the shredded and scorched remains of the organ had filtered downwards, gushing out of the now gaping wound in the mutant's side, alongside several other key organs and tissues.

The chainfist moved aside and swatted away the now deceased targets, moving to the next two, but not before the combi-bolter was brought to bear and fired a booming shoot directly into the face of the final mutant which had begun to point a rifle at him. The shell instantly caved in the mask and face of his soon to be attacker, and if that did not kill him, the reactive explosion of the bolt which removed the shooter of his head did. The body was pitched back, the force rolling it into the frontal stand of a tent, which caused the front end to collapse. A cry was heard of confusion erupted from the inside, prompting the captain to turn as he swung his chainfist into the two remaining foes before bearing the combi-bolter at the tent. The trigger was pulled and this time the barrel of the melta spoke, casting a pure beam of super heated molecules at the tent front. The beam punched through the light material of the tent and struck the figure inside, eliciting a horrible scream of pain and the boiling and hissing sound of flesh right before the tent spontaneously caught fire from the melta's beam.

In a masterful desplay of dexterity the Captain held down the trigger and spun completely in a circle, hitting all the tents around him resulting in a symphony of screams and flames. He pivoted around, catching the forms moving behind him with the trailing beam and added the bolter fire to it, striking the six foes that had decided to close in behind him with melee weapons. Flesh seared away in a horrible cacophony of boiling and hissing added to by the screams of the mutants. The tainted ones would be exterminated by fire, bolter and fist so that none would escape alive.

The Captain took notice of the exit of the cavern opposite of where he had entered, and slowly began to move towards it. He became a maelstrom of destruction, charging through enemies or shattering them with his chainfist. Those that did not seek the honorable death from melee combat were exterminated by bolter or meltagun, and resistance or cover between his holy weapons being shattered by the armor warping heat of the meltagun. The fires that had started by the lenient use of meltagun shots had expanded and encompassed the cave, smoke wafting upwards into the shadows above, the inferno destroying tents and wooden supply crates in a massive blaze.

Their moral had broken after the greater half of them perished to his weapons. They ran backwards, towards the exit, trying to escape the pursuing form of the Giant but to no avail. Mere feet away from the entrance several beams and large tents collapsed in a burning pyre Trapping them a now enclosed area with the Captain. The flames forming a large ring around him as they spun about. It was then the Papheus allowed himself the satisfaction of smiling and then speaking.

"Come Mutants, I shall shatter you in the name of the Emperor and of the Chapter. For the Great Iron Father!" He spoke, his vox casters booming his voice to the ceiling of the cave. He could see the fear within their eyes, the will to flee. He found them wanting, and now it was time to pass judgment. He rushed forward, bolter screaming death as it popped the chest and heads of the foes. His chainfist came down in a brutal arc, tearing across three of them in a even diagonal line, their separated bodies dropping to the floor in wet sounds accompanied by the screams of their comrades and their own death throes. Ten remained. The combi-bolter slid in the Captain's hand as it was brought down and magnetically locked to his waist.

He approached the remaining ones, his chainfist singing as he reached forward and speared the first foe through the chest. With his free hand he grabbed the next by the throat before he instantly crushed it, sending the now limp body into the flames. Chainfist roared as the next victim was violently removed of its head to such a degree that the body stood still before falling over. His other fist came back, smashing strait into the skull of the next mutant as it screamed, instantly caving in the face as his fist rocketed into the grey matter. The next mutant fought back, seeking to strike him as he removed his hand. With un-paralleled speed he pulled back his before turning and sending the chain fist strait into the mutant's chest.

The five remaining attempted to attack him, their fear making them sloppy and unpredictable to the common eye. Papheus could see right through the strikes of poorly aimed swords and axes. The first on was robbed of his weapon by his free hand before it was instantly returned point first into the mutant's masked face. Blood splashed outward, coating the entire gauntlet with a fresh coat of red gore. The next was simply plunged through by the chain fist, the weapon disintegrating beneath the power field of the fist before the chain blade was driven strait into the mutant's chest. The next foe was simply back handed, the blow crushing ribs and lungs as the man was cast to the dirt floor, winded and unable to scream out as the next one was gripped at the waist, lift and then torn in two. Blood splashed everywhere as the two parts were flung aside into the flames. The final standing mutant was grabbed at this point, screaming out in horror and at the same time begging for mercy. The Captain's free hand reached up and grabbed him by the head, raising him up to eye height so that he could get a good look at the mask. The creature continued to beg, but was cut short when the fist closed and the mutant's head crumbled apart, the body being dropped to the floor. He was turning away when he realized the small gasps of breath were from the mutant he had back handed struggling to get up, the small sounds of bones grinding against each other causing him to turn and stare down the no tilted mutant perched up by its arms. He approached the thing as it tried to escape , slowly dragging its way across the floor. He approached the creature, leaning downwards before raising back up, and stomping the armored boot upon the mutant's legs. It elicited a face of pure agony and torture, gasps of air dragging out in strangled cries.

The Captain stepped past the struggling mutant, towards the ring of fire, from where he pulled forth an entire collapsed tent with his free hand, the flames doing little to his armor save maybe put soot on the black paint. He took a step back and once again towered over the Faunus, burning tent in hand. The pure, un-adulterated look of fear the mutant gave him was worth it. Without ceremony he simply threw the tent down upon the screaming thing, fire instantly spreading to the cloths underneath the armor, the struggling of the creature causing the tent to fully engulf it, the screams of burning like a litany to the Captain's ears. He left the burning creature to its fate, coming back the way he came as the fire consumed the cavern.

* * *

 **Author's Note: This is a pretty long chapter for me, and I'm glad I got it done so quickly considering all the Havoc in the last few days. I have admit it was a bit of a challenge to see how the conversation between the four of these men would go but I think I got somewhat close to what is considered "Proper" for a back ground explanation through the between the characters. Also, this group of men has a team name btw, as I'm guessing you all are good enough to figure out, Also let me know what you all think of the story, especially this combat bit here, I wish to know if I'm getting it somewhat correct. I'm really thankful to all of you who follow and favorite my stories, cause if its one thing I'm doing almost constantly is its stalking the RWBY 40k crossover page for the next story update or its looking for my next email from this place. I'm starting to ramble a bit but it feels really good to express stuff like this for a group of people who like my stuff and if this keeps up with views all try and update as quickly as I get ideas. The next update for this story however will probably be in two weeks because I seriously need to continue Another War to Wage, my other cross over story for 40k and League of Legends. Besides that, was fun typing this out and I'll see you guys relatively soon.**


	3. Chapter 3 Mortality is Judgement

Dust, it had happened all so fast Deshan thought as he ran aside his four other comrades within the tunnel. It had started with the screaming, it had echoed across the cavern before more voices joined in and one by one where silenced by either a piercing crack of shattering bones or the thunderous boom of some sort of firearm. Whatever the weapon was it had to be incredibly large to produce such sound, and that was before the sizzling noise as the fire started. The blaze had lit up several tents almost at the same time, as if whatever was killing his brother and sister Faunus's was a dragon of old. Perhaps it was a new Atlas invention, designed to take vengeance for the all of Vale. Maybe it was a loyal Atlesian Knight, its pilot driven by rage and madness to hunt down and pursue any enemies despite orders. They could kill something like that if they organized quick enough, but that wasn't the case.

Half way to the ammunition storage is when he saw the enemy. It was a gigantic, larger than an ursa, black as night save for the skulls and white symbols adorning its surface. The machine had a singular massive fire arm in one hand that, as he watched in horror, breath molten fire and spit bullets out in a roar of synchronized destruction. He watched on in shock as the robot rushed forward towards one of his fleeing comrades, before the seemingly empty, that empty gigantic fist, reached forward and snatched the head of the fleeing Fang member, and plucked him off the ground, the split second of screaming silenced by the terrifying act as the Robot's hand began to glow and with small squeeze crushed the skull of the petrified Faunus. With that Deshan had broken over the nerve numbing fear that had encased him and ran, not daring to look back lest the machine turn around and spot him.

He had rushed out of the cavern they had set up in and past the deceased guard by the fireplace, no one stopping to take notice or mourn the fallen brother out of fear and hysteria. He rushed on the left flank, a step ahead of the pack driven by the fear of actually seeing the Machine, the others questioning and driven to follow by confusion and fear of the unknown force that was tearing their brothers and sisters apart. Ahead there was a bend, a way closer to the exit of the caves if he remembered correctly, and he began to outpace the pack even more. He was so riddled with hope that he didn't register the slight jangle and the sound of iron boots stepping forward as it reached his sensitive ears.

Deshan barely got to realize his mistake of throwing caution to the wind as he rounded the corner, seeing out of the corner of his eye the arching warhammer as it collided straight into his skull, the split second of spasmodic pain before the embrace of death took him, his now deceased body spasming one last time as the warhammer was retched out with a sickening sound of skull fragments rubbing together and grey matter dripping off of steel.

* * *

The screaming less than a minute after the gigantic form of Issoctus disappeared around the corner, the not so faint cries echoing through the cavern. The two men had laid Ozpin's resting body against the wall of the cavern, trying to make his position as comfortable as possible before the two rested their gazes at the bend of the corner, weapons held at guard. The two settled their stances to the horrid cries of dying White Fang members and the thunder of gunfire. Two minutes in the screaming and cries continued, but now they were accompanied by smoke slowly bellowing against the cave's ceiling, inching its way towards them. Luckily, it passed over them instead of reaching down, leaving them a clear line of sight.

Sabastion was the first to notice the repetitive slapping of shoes against stone and dirt that was approaching them at a break neck pace. Counting out the pairs, amounting to no more than a, he turns to look at Ozpin, and the armored form of Rathenau standing guard beside him. He gestured with his spear, the motion causing the knight to grab his warhammer before striding over, the helmet hiding any expression that may have graced his face. "Yes?" the knight asked.

"There is movement down in the cavern, multiple footsteps, and none of them being heavy enough to even represent the Giant." Sabastion replied, squatting down next to a small formation of stalagmites. "We have a minute at most before we come into contact."

"Well then, I'm guessing it be a few of those hooligans the Ozpin spoke of. I do say we should give them a ... heartwarming gretting." The Rathenau said, his war hammer shifting further down his shoulder before he hefted the shield up.

"I could not agree more. Inform the Headmaster and make sure he's out of the way, I would hate if our only guide was to be struck down by a stray strike." Sabastion commanded, concern growing in his voice upon the mention of Ozpin as he looked over at the propped up man, whose breathing was a bit labored before a small fit of coughing.

"Aye." The knight strode away, his armored feet quickly covering the distance between himself and Ozpin. "Alright Headmaster, I'm going to move you just a bit to the side here real quick," he said to the green clothed man, pointing behind a sizable rock, "Those hooligans you told us about are coming up the cave in a small group, I'm guessing they ran pass the Giant, guess that armor makes it a little harder to see after all." He said, before reaching out to the man and hosting him up by the shoulder.

"How many are there?" the dry voice of Ozpin gasped out, his eyes looking towards Rathenau from under the rounded spectacles.

"A few atleast, we haven't got much time though, I have to get in position, you should be alright here, so sit tight and try not to bring to much attention to yourself." He said, moving the man to the indicated position, slowly setting him down before moving away with more speed. The light jingle of chainmail and clank of boots was the only indication of his small jog towards another rock resting against the closer wall of the bend.

A minutes more left nothing but more screaming and thunder, before Rathenau heard the pounding of padded feet. He looked back across the way, eyes connecting with Sabastion, both of them nodding in confirmation, it left a small wondering in his mind of how the warrior had heard the footsteps nearly a minute before he could. He cleared his mind of the thoughts, focusing more on the coming conflict that was about to be upon him.

A few seconds more and he could hear the individual pairs, the next seconds he could hear the breathing from the enemy, soon it mixed with the thunder from the farther cave, soon to group over bearing it seemed. It was when the footsteps seemed onto of him that he rose up.

With a wordless roar Rathenau rose from behind his cover, war hammer swinging forward in an upwards arc, the steel weapon travelling with the force of a blazing star as it connected to the nearest Fang with a mind sickening crunch a mockery noise of a whimper before the member's lower jaw was ripped off and flung across the corridor, the figure dropping to floor in a heap of limbs. Following the split second of movement was another wordless scream echoing his own as Sabastion rose from behind the stalagmites and jumped clean over, his spear thrusting out to impale an enemy directly in front of him, the bronze weapon ripping through the weak black shirt the Fang member was wearing.

The remaining members, which were five were in shock, but that did not stop the farthest three from drawing weapons as they tried to fruitlessly halt the ambush. Sabastion had already pulled his spear from his first target, the man with, antler horns, dropping to the floor in front of him. Rathenau wasted no time, raising his shield to bash his next opponent with a charge. The Fang member was caught chest up in full center, the heavy movements of the knight bowling him over in a cry of fear. The warhammer sailed up in an over head strike, before coming back down, gravity pushing the weapon directly into the chest of the figure as the shield vacated the space just in time. A sickening crunch echoed around the cavern as the warhammer shattered collar bone, ribs and sternum within a single motion, his opponent dead before the weapon was even drawn back.

Rathenau leaned back from his victim just in time to raise his shield to block a swing from a steel sword within one of the weapon wielder's hands. The man was fast, but smaller than him, the sword moving again only to be denied by the warhammer 's haft. The two locked weapons again in a grudge match of strength, with Rathenua being on top barely due to his armor. Somehow the man, who was shorter and smaller than him, was pushing him back just enough for a stalemate. It continued to be a small shoving match before the two were distracted as a large green orb flew past and smashed into the Fang member in the back who had raised a rather large block of steel at Sabastion, who was currently distracted with hacking the limbs off the body of the third weapon holder with a curved sword, his spear resting a foot away buried within the masked face of a Fang.

Rathenua's opponent shouted something aloud, to who he did not know. it sounded something like "Huntsman" if he heard correctly. It did not matter though, for it distracted the man's strength, and allowed Rathenua to reel his head back before smashing it forward, the steel helmet coming into contact with the Faunus with a dull thud, causing the man to fall backwards, screaming as his hands spread out, the sword falling to his side as he rolled over to face the floor. Rathenau paced to the side of the man, who had pulled his hands to the side of his head in pain, before a solid kick from the steel boot flipped him over, the man looking up in time to see Rathenau raise the warhammer high above his head, before bringing it down into the face of the screaming Fang member.

The screaming stopped as Rathenua wretched his warhammer out of the Fang member. He looked around to find Sabastion retrieving his spear. With a sigh of relief he dropped to one knee, armor clanking as he rested his shield hand atop his warhammer to steady it, before the now free hand worked its way across his chest in the symbol of the cross. He gave thanks to the lord with small revered tones before gazing back up and re clasping his warhammer. He looked above to find Sabastion in front of him, arm stretched out, and hand empty. "Are you well?" He asked.

The knight took the offered hand before raising himself up. "No, just a quick thanks to our Holy lord for guiding us through the ambush." He replied

"Ah, though I am not the most religious of men I can say that Ares was here with us this time, guiding our weapons." The Spartan said, before moving aside to return back to Ozpin. The casualty of such heathenistic faith the man openly showed pulled his chains as one were to say. He calmed himself however, the man was from a time from before Christ, how was it his fault for being uneducated? He would have to open him to the light of the Cross.

"I wish to know what that green light was, I didn't get a chance o really inspect it as it flew by." He said, coming after the warrior.

"That..." A small cough fit interrupted the green clad man, "was me." Ozpin stated, a small bit of perspiration coating his brow. He was sitting a bit rigid and he was leaning against the rock, able to half his body around the stone if he wished, cane resting in his open hand like a sword. How hard was the toll on the man to shift himself over here, with broken bones no less? A mystery he hoped that would be answered.

"What exactly was that?" Sabastion asked, his helmet shifting to the side as he halted in front of the grey haired man.

"I too would like to know. What sorcery," The knight snarled out the word "was that?" He said, his undertone sounding more than violent. Ozpin looked up, one eyebrow raised in questioning at Rathenau.

"A rather interesting way to describe the usage of power from one's very own soul to protect others." Ozpin said, sounding a bit exasperated. "Though I have no idea why you seem in such a foul standing with it to call it a superstitious usage of power when it just saved your comrade's life from being taken by that White Fang over there." He continued.

"Using one's soul, that's... that's unrealistic, do not attempt to trick me you warlock, I know that you try to fool us, after all, how was Sabastion suppose to be injured by that person if they were standing several feet away, after all, the weapon wasn't even sharp, and was too clunky to deal damage besides disorientation." Rathenau stated, smugness creeping into his voice.

"Obviously you're not educated enough to realize the weapon the Fang over there had was in fact a fire arm, he could have been standing ten feet closer or even twenty feet back and still gotten the same effect when Shooting at Sabastion." Ozpin stated, brow furrowed.

"Firearm, as in the man's arm would suddenly combust into flames? Wouldn't that hurt him more than me?" Sabastion interjected.

"No, a fire arm is a weapon, similar to the one the Issoctus had remember, that's what the thunderous banging is." The staccato of the thunderous banging repeating itself overhead just seeming to emphasize the man's point. "That sound is a firearm discharging, spitting bullets, which you should think of as steel rocks formed in a certain shape, at a high speed, that when coming into contact with flesh and even some armor can be devastating. Do you understand?"

"No I do not Warlock, but you still haven't answered my question." Rathenua stated, impatience covering his voice.

"The one you were fighting called me Huntsman, yes? Well think of that in terms of your realm, what would a huntsman do."

"They would hunt, beast, creatures, not people for foul means."

"that is true, but in this day and time we use our skills to protect people from the darkness, not help it, we fight off the monsters who seek to crush and kill our people, pure darkness taken the forms of horrid beast."

"Sound pretty awful Headmaster." Sabastion spoke up.

"Enough of negative thoughts, tell you what, I'll explain more if you grab me the White Fang with the fire arm whom I blasted, that one isn't dead and might be useful for interrogation." Ozpin looked away towards the target, before gesturing at it.

Sabastion walked over, leaving the knight with Ozpin before he grabbed the Fang by its hood, hauling it back towards to the two men ignorant of the small groans his capture emitted save to stop for the blocky form of the so called "Firearm" which he cradled in hand with the spear. He unceremoniously dumped the capture between the two before sitting down, resting his spear against the rock before taking in the looks of the firearm, the two other men looking at the slowly rousing Faunus.

* * *

The animal man was only able to lift his masked face an inch off the ground to find he ached all over, and that a warhammer was pointed directly at his face. He groaned slightly before taking in the image of the knight overhead and the slumped form of a green man next to him. Trying to ignore the obvious negatives of his situation he did take into the fact that the green suited man looked oddly familiar. Though he could barely understand what the green suited man was saying to the steel figure above him, which looked oddly like an under polished Atleasian robot with a bucket for a head and a black tunic, he did see the cane lying next to the man, and then took in the silver hair. Chunks of memory began to rise from the murky depths of a barely comatose brain and as the pieces connected the Faunus Terrorist realized he was looking at Ozpin, The Head Master of Beacon Academy.

The one that was supposedly deceased as the High Council had said.

His brain working slowly to rouse itself, it made him realize just how much it hurt to even move, much less speak. He leaned forward as much as his aching back would allow it. What he saw horrified him. From the top of his once pristine white chest plate down was a charred black, the armor melted through in a large crater that still glowed green at the edges. He could barely feel his legs or arms, so it seemed he wasn't going to be moving any time soon. He laid back and looked up once again only to find his slight movements had attracted the attention of his captors.

"We thought..." He gasped out in a rasping tone, "you were dead." Goodness he sounded awful, and boy did it hurt to breath. None the less, he looked at the supposedly deceased headmaster for some sort of answer.

"You were wrong." The man's voice was eerily calming. It was then the Faunus realized how Ozpin moved, how his form seemed rested against the rocks. His body was healing but not quickly enough to quite show how some bones jutted out the wrong way, how some parts f his hands and even his check were bruised. How even now, when he seemed at his lowest, that the spark of a small green glimmer would ignite around him, like electricity. He was so close to death that he seemed helpless. It softened the Fang for, to see a man so burdened by his problems and the possibility of failure. It was horrifying enemy or not. Yet here he lay, surrounded by the oddest of strangers clinging onto life. It was amazing at the same time.

The silence continued as Ozpin and Rathenau stared at the seemingly stunned Faunus. The man's eyes were glazed and his face was a bit twitched, but other than that it seemed as if the man was trying to comprehend exactly what he was seeing, rather strange. The silence was interrupted by a small click and the following sound of a piece of metal sliding before smacking onto the dirt floor. Both men looked at Sabastion as he sat there, the firearm aimed at the floor, his hand having just slid away from the mag release, from within the helmet, his eyes looked at the two in return before stating the obvious: "I'm not dead?"

"Hand me that before he hurts himself Rathenau." Ozpin said, gesturing for the fire arm. Sabastion released the weapon with a small grunt, while Rathenau handed the firearm, barrel first towards Ozpin. "Watch where you point that!" The man in green stated, pushing the barrel away, before grabbing the under barrel and twisting it around. "And the magazine."

"The what?" both men asked.

"The thing that dropped out of the gun Sabastion." Ozpin said, sounding more exasperated by the second.

"You mean this thing?" Sabastion asked, picking up the magazine to inspect it. "what are these things inside it?" he followed up before passing it over to Ozpin.

"Remember those steel rocks I told you about?" Ozpin said, waiting for Sabastion to nod in confirmation, "Well, they're called bullets, and they come in magazines, there's about thirty five of these within a standard magazine like this one." he continued, raising the magazine before twisting it.

"I still don't understand how those exactly fly, or hurt you for the matter, they look to small." The Spartan said, backed up by Rathenau's mutterings of 'do explain'.

"Well..." Ozpin thought for a second, before looking back at the two, "Think of them as arrows, small, metal, arrows. They're much more accurate, they fly farther and are extremely hard to get out." He said, a small sense of satisfation forming before being shattered once again.

"So how do they fly outta that thing? Cause it doesn't look like a bow." Sabastion asked.

"Nor does it resemble a crossbow, though it is made of more metal than one it seems." Rathenau added

"Alright, you see this thing?" Ozpin asked, pointing toward the trigger and its guard.

"Yea." the two said.

"Well, once you turn off the safety" he pointed to a small button on the side that slid back and forth, "You pull this trigger, and out flies one of those bullets." He said, pointing back to the trigger. "Get it?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Might have been easier if you just showed us."

"Well, I'll let you have a go with them after we get out of this cave and to a safer location." Ozpin said, before looking down sharply. :Speaking of which, Faunus, where is the exit to this cave?"

The Faunus who had broken out of his little revelry looked up at Ozpin, a little shocked at being addressed so quickly after the conversation with the obvious primitives that had never seen a gun before somehow. That and he wasn't being threatened, but he assumed if he didn't answer the Armor wearing tunic man would hurt him with that hammer. The silence was a bit overwhelming as he found the courage to speak.

Once you enter the main cavern, just across from it is the corridor leading to the entrance, which is a pair of old wooden doors, it's about a five minute walk at a slow pace, three if you're in a bit of a hurry." He gulped the last part.

"How far away from Vale are we?" Ozpin was hungry for knowledge, his spectacles never dropping from the man.

"About twenty miles south west, we're up against a ridge line about an hour and a half from the coast if anything to judge by the breeze." He said, the constant talking was taking a toll.

"Anything else important that could help us?"

"There's a village, just about three hours from here, I could lead you to it, but only if you let me go afterwards, I'll never do anything with the White Fang again I swe-" The man's voice was drowned out by ear shattering roar from the massive form of Issoctus's combi-bolter as it fired a single shot from the corner of the bend, instantly exploding the Faunus's head like a burst melon, shattering the three other men in blood, grey matter and a semi dangerous cone of skull fragments. All three were clutching their ears from the pain of the sound, shouting out curses and despites upon the form of Issoctus as he marched forward towards them.

"You should of just killed him, for I have already found the way out." His voiced boomed.

"Why would do that, and what gives you the right to just execute him like that!?" Ozpin yelled

"He was a traitor and was a harm to humanity, he was a walking abomination, a mutant." Issoctus stated as if the words were a fact and decree in the same phrase.

"You and I will have to have a long talk about agreeable actions upon when its acceptable to kill someone before we even meet the next town." Ozpin stated, his voice hardening.

"If you seem to think that will change much then you are going to be making a futile gesture, I will execute and kill those I see fit too, and let me tell you psyker, despite you having warned me of this "White Fang", you are still very susceptible to meting your ends within this very cave." Issoctus said, his helmet not being able to filter out the raw malice at the end of the sentence.

"Enough, we need to get going, Sabastion come grab Ozpin's other arm. Issoctus I trust you to take point." Rathenau stated, his logical decree seeming somewhat forced on due to having to order a man twice his size from murdering the only remaining guide out of here.

With that the impromptu team march on.

* * *

Issoctus lead them through he cave where he had battled the Fang in. To say that the remaining bodies and raging inferno was unsettling was putting it lightly. It seemed as if every carcass they came across had been put down with extreme prejudice, to the point some were not even vaguely humanoid. That and the blood.

It was everywhere, coating blazing tents, the floor, crates, bodies. The bodies were either scorched, missing heads, or completely obliterated from the torso up, as if they had been punched through. The second most horrifying part within the carnage was the matter that almost all of the corpses had died without weapons drawn. Their bodies were obliterated with no resistance. The smell of burning flesh sifted through the air, making the mortal pack mates stumble and falter with gags.

They stopped midway through the cavern, the place far enough away from the flames to take the scene in. "You two rest the pysker down, and go grab that mining cart over there," The giant said, pointing to the right to find a stable looking mine cart. "Then take two of those boxes over there in it," He continued, his combi-bolter pointing at a pair of crates that were small enough to go into the cart flat. "Then put him atop it." He finished, pointing back to Ozpin with his hand. The two men moved quick, laying Ozpin flat before assembling the required materials. The cart pushing easily as they stacked the boxes in it and even after they had slowly lowered Ozpin's form on top. At least the man had some protection now while being able to see.

"Good." was all Issoctus said before continuing forward, using his chainfist to bash aside and debris or ruble that got in the way of the cart. He stomped out flames within their path, pushed aside fallen tents and timbers, moved corpses until the path was clear enough for the cart to roll forward to the path to the main entrance. the large flaming beam laid there, which caused Issoctus to stop. He raised his combi-bolter up, and pulled the secondary trigger. The flash back from the gun sparked around his form that protected the eyes of those behind him as the solidified streak of heat disintegrated the burning beam to ash, before he lowered his weapon once more and walked forward, the mine cart and its pushers following right behind the glaring light of Issoctus's headlight.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Oh wow, this chapter was a spin on itself, I wanted this to have some serious problems that didn't involve violence, such as cultural lash back and lots of meaningful purposes that will later help the characters. I thought it was also a good thing to show that me mortal characters can still kick some ass no matter how terrified it was. Also, Ozpin may have a few broken bones but he can sill stay conscious. Gotta say that it took me awhile to fully come up for the concept and design of how to deal with all this while leaving open ends. The actual story is coming along in idea, but at the same time I've been very distracted by wonderful idea that I promise will only show up after I at least put 20 chapters into each of my stories. Also, must say Smashfucker Prime will not deal with anyone's shit, no matter how important they may be. Hope you guys enjoy it. I've spent the entire night typing this up out of sheer determination, and must say that the end writing may not be great but I hope it gets the point of cultural clash and mortality across.**


	4. Chapter 4 Imperial Justice Takes Account

The two double oaken doors that led into the cave had already been open when the gaze of Issoctus's lenses fell upon it. Smoke had slowly started to garner and billow out of the story tall opening, hugging the ceiling of the cavern as if trying to stay as far away from the metal giant for as long as possible before rushing out into the night sky. Behind the giant was the mine cart filled with Ozpin's propped up form, followed by its two guardians and laborers, Sabastion and Rathenau. The marching pace was halted, the mine cart slowly grinding to a stop behind the Giant as he took in the view or the surrounding landscape. Moon light filled the night sky in mass, sparkly unmatched save for a few wandering clouds. A light breeze brought forth the slight waver in the trees that clumped together before them, a small dirt path leading from the entrance of the cave into the darkened recesses of the forest, curving slightly to the right, following the curve of the mountains leading northeast, to the city Ozpin spoke of named Vale. He could see fires raging from this distance, no augmentations to see the effect the Grimm had, or the multiple howls upon the wind as the massive form of a stone dragon rested atop the highest spire within the sky line. He turned his gaze back towards the forest itself, to find that the trees eventually gave way to shoreline, the dark green grass giving out to sand in natural mounds and currents, its color having turned from a rudimentary yellow to an almost pearly white beneath the light of the moon. He ignored the approach of the two companions from behind as they made their own observations of the surrounding hillside. The silent perceptions of the trio was broken by Sabastion, his helm tilted upward to the point as if he would tip backward into the breeze, spear and shield held loosely in their places of hanging palms.

"What in the name of Olympus happened to the symbol of Artemis?" He whispered, Rathenau looking up and Issoctus stepping back in caution, combi-bolter raised in preparation for a target before he too realized that the warrior was observing upwards.

"I wonder what could have happened to cause that level of **Destruction**." Rathenau said hesitantly, his eyes looked on the form of the half complete moon, the other half shattered and held within the gravitational orbit of it's whole still partner.

"Logical thesis would state that spare use of a cyclonic torpedo, ranging between the usage of one to three would be significant enough to cause such devastation the crust and internal core of the satellite of that size. For what reason I do not understand but this raises another question." Issoctus drones out, his gravelly tone almost mechanical in its intellectual nature. The three others present had no time to react to the sudden movement of the Giant as he spun about, his semi raised weapon full extended toward the prone form of Ozpin, who had been watching the three from his suspended mockery of a throne within the mine cart. The green tinted spectacles focused solely on the Giant now, a single silvery eyebrow raised in question, his face a complete and perfect example of stunned confusion but his eyes betrayed him, spelling out one word from the very depths of his person: **Fear**.

"You Lied." The anger and malice dripped from the Giant's voice through the external vox communicator, his words formed a low growl from a distance but even from the meager ten feet away he could have whispered it an Ozpin would still be able to **Feel** the controlled fury within it.

" **YOU LIED!** " Issoctus's voice bellowed again from the speakers, a grinding roar filled with barely contained fury, the sound causing the few local bird to make haste in removing themselves from the nearby tree line. In less than a second his armored form strode a step and a half to the front of prone green suited headmaster, combi-bolter so close to the man's face that he pilot light of the underslung flamer threatened to jump from its place at the bottom of the barrel to his nose. Though the desperate situation needed to be diffused least he end up a burning pyre in an steel cart he began to do what he did best, and that was **Talk**.

"I did not lie about anything Issoctus, I stand by what I said in the fact that there is no "Imperium of Man" here. I barely can guess at what a cyclonic torpedo is but if it can be used in single digits to represent the destruction caused to our lunar satellite we call "the moon" then obviously I am not the only one who would be wonder just what the hell you actually are and why you are here. You came through portals of sheer white in the Vault, yet none of you are alike." Ozpin retaliated viciously, his voice like ice in its pure opposite of Issoctus's violate temper. The fear that hung over him still clung to the corners of his face but he was determined to press on, despite looking down the barrel of the Giant's double barreled weapon. "If you're so centered upon what is true about us why do you feel the need to hide your face like some type of coward. If you are so concerned to tell me what I know and do not know, then why don't you bare your face and say that I have been lying through my **TEETH**!" Ozpin bellowed out the end, causing both Sabastion and Rathenau, who had both been watching the conversation between the two men with growing concern, back away once again.

"To think, that even for a second, that a liar, not to even mention a **Heretic,** would dare demand me to remove my Holy armor's helm just to give you the satisfaction of proof for your mundane and treacherous reasons is perhaps the most foolish things I have ever heard. I think its high time we removed the problem." Issoctus boomed, his form standing tall again, yet the gigantic gun never wavered from its place in front of the Headmaster's face.

"Wh-" Ozpin, thoroughly confused by the assumptions and accusations of the Giant, began before he was interrupted by Issoctus's gravelly voice once again.

"I will admit, you are perhaps the worst heretical psyker I ever had the unfortunate displeasure of meeting, I will cease your unknowing heresies evermore." the giant started, before he began once more, his voice taking a tune more akin to giving a great oriental speech, " **I, Papheus Issoctus, Captain of the Iron Hands Third Company, sanction you, Headmaster Ozpin of Remnant, to death, on accounts of being an unsanctioned psyker, committing countless heresies, and attempting to deceive an Instrument of His Divine Will. May the Emperor account in all balances, and may his Holy Judgement be heard by all.** " The Giant boomed, his voice carrying across the forest and ridgeline. He locked his gaze with the trembling eyes of Ozpin as the man finally seemed to understand exactly what was happening. He opened his mouth, his eyes transmitting an uncountable amount of emotions as Issoctus's metal finger depressed the trigger.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Surprise, I'm back, I nearly died within the last three months and may or may not have had a run in with a couple of lads back from the old days before my exile. Sorry the Chapter's short, Just decided to write it up while I had the time. I wanna see what you all think about the cliff hanger here (Hint* Hint* it has something to do with the current plot of the show.) and will tell you now don't expect daily updates. I recently got a Poleaxe and have been training with it and can safely say that I have run five different heavy leather and straw training dummies through with it. I may or may not have nearly punched a hole through the front of my neighbors car, but to be honest they really shouldn't have parked exactly into my training area like the heretics they are. Also, I'm pretty much giving up on my other story, cause I already know the plat isn't going anywhere, Ill update it pretty soon just to break it out. It wasn't going very far anyway cause I'm a lazy fuck when it comes to writing but not the ideas.**


	5. Chapter 5 Questions Upon the Past

The roar of the Captain's bolter cut through the night, rending apart the not so peaceful night air of Vale's southern forest, overpowering and then out right silencing the headmasters dying scream. The sound of Ozpin's upper torso exploding rent through the night air less than a millisecond afterwards, chest cavity, completely ignoring the headmaster's weakened aura and driving into the man's chest cavity in a small fountain of blood and shattered bone. Ozpin's skinny and crimpled body stood no chance of surviving even before the reactive round detonated, removing all of the man's chest and upper stomach, his remaining limbs from the shoulder down and rocketing the now detached head, minus the skull away from the body. What remained in the mine cart was nothing more than a pair of badly shredded legs, the lower intestines and a generous amount of blood, bone, viscera, bits of organs, skin and marrow.

The Captain's form was not spared from the explosion either, bits of bone and blood coated the front of the combi-bolter, spreading out across his outstretched arm and sprinkled the lower part of his chest guard reaching down to his belt. If the body fluids now covering the Captain made him uncomfortable he gave no notice, in fact, the Captain's stance displayed a rather uncaring emotion running through him, as if the execution of the Headmaster was nothing more than brushing some dust off of his armor. For the two very mortal men behind the massive form of the Captain, eyes wide and weapons drawn, shifting uncertainly as they both became very aware of their current situation; they might share the same fate in but a few seconds.

The Captain slowly turned away from the destroyed corpse, his bolter shifting with him to gaze upon the two warriors standing, weapons drawn, their eyes filled with barely contained fear and worry, spreading their looks between the captain and the bloody mine cart. The captain simply lowered his weapon, before speaking.

"Let us leave this place."

* * *

They walked for just under an hour at most, yet the entire thing felt like an eternity for Sabastion. His mind and heart in rebellion against the actions of the Giant. Logically speaking the Captain had done only done two wrongs, one; being that he murdered an unarmed man, and the other being that he killed someone without consulting anyone else on the man's wrong, even if they all knew that the Headmaster was most definitely hiding something. Otherwise, however, Sabstion's heart was in turmoil. The Captain had killed someone, on a man who had done no wrong to them and had only helped them so far, even if It was primarily to escape the cave in an act of self preservation. Who could blame Ozpin though, he was a little ruin, his limbs broken and he was in desperate need of rest and a long amount of restoration. The headmaster's unnatural magic may have been able to help him, and he may have turned upon them once he was healed, but still. It just did not fully add up to why the Giant had been so upset at him.

Reviving it, The Captain had raised his voice to such heights that both warriors had their heads rigging for a good few seconds afterward, as if someone had punched an avalanche into their ears. He had accused the wounded man of several things, one of which was being a psyker. Was that perhaps some type of wizard, however why did that give the Captain reason to brand him, what was it, a "Heretic"? A non-believer that was not in occurrence to the same faith as that of the Captain? If he was so unrelenting and merciless to turn upon their guide in this foreign land, what was stopping the Giant from turn upon them with the same amount of prejudice. Perhaps the Captain only deemed them worthy to stay in his armored presence because they were not the so Dubbed "Psykers". But what if choose to turn upon them anyways, they would not be able to escape his ire no doubt. He saw those so called "Faunus" who had earned it back in the cave, the mutilated bodies, the burning tents. It was horrifying, and were it not for his will as a warrior he would have been broken in mind. His unsettled mind was too filled with questions to bear by his own. He turned to look at the Captain, his gigantic form outlined by the shatter lunar light casting down a foreboding shadow upon the pair of warriors behind him as he carved a path through the scatter forest trees. He wanted to ask him so much, yet he had no idea how to broach the subject and no doubt if he did not phrase his words careful the Captain would turn on him. Though he was a straight forward fellow, he was not nearly arrogant or ignorant enough to believe himself even an inch beyond the Giant's wrath.

They walked for a few more paces before the Captain slowed to a halt, almost making both Sabastion and the knight crash into his armored back. "Though I do not require such needs to the degree that many do, I understand that you both are very weary, and as such proclaim we break here for a multitude of hours for so that you may sleep." The Captain spoke, his voice cold, unyielding, logical in his assumptions. Sabastion didn't exactly realize it but they had been walking from the very start of there journey for at least four hours, with only a small moment to break at most. His body ached from exertion from the battle he partook in before arriving to this strange land, and the unrelenting pace the Giant had set had not done much better for his weary legs. The Captain moved forward, revealing to the two men a small patch of dirt that would serve as a clearing just as well as any other area in these woods. Sabastion inwardly cursed for being so preoccupied with his inner turmoil that he had not even realized the area around him. If the others had taken notice of his momentary weakness they made no sign of it, and Rathenau merely advanced into the clearing. He strode to the right side of the Captain before planting his Warhammer spike first into the ground, and reverently pressing his shield against it. Kneeling down before it, the knight bowed his head, and faint whispers rose up from the warrior, his words lost among the slight breeze. Sabastion turned away from the knight and strode to the left, setting both his spear and shield down beside him before simply lying down, staring up through the semi-broken canopy and at the starry night sky. He still had questions, almost as uncountable as the stars above, but for now, his body, and his mind, demanded rest. With that in mind he slowly closed his eyes, his body passing into a deep slumber not more than a few minutes later.

* * *

"I pray to you my Lord, and to those who I surround myself with that we make it through this, that we shall not falter, that we may remain stalwart in the face of the enemy, whether they act as ally, or as foe. I pray to you in besetment of guidance, for a way, a light guide my path in this strange world. I ask not for any gifts other than you guide me in your most Holy work." The knight had begun praying, Issoctus thought as he heard the whispers of the man behind him as if they were words said in a conversation, his enhanced hearing picking apart the syllables easily in the calm night. They sounded close to the very words the Chaplains rang out in their Holy sermons, addressing company and chapter for his Holy deeds and works, their missions of servitude for the true God Emperor. To think that someone, from a time so long ago held even a fraction of the meaning to the very same prayers so far in the future was miracle at best. It made the Captain wonder; how far had we truly come? Alas, he had no answer, but even if the Emperor had not yet revealed himself to Humanity then, perhaps he was still working reverently from the sidelines, shaping the human race for what was to come. There was a slight thought that rang u within his mind though, this "Rathaneu" had been fresh from conflict just like himself and the other warrior, a conflict know as a "crusade". A cleansing no doubt, put forth by the Emperor, but on what? What could possibly need cleansing from Holy Terra herself that the Emperor required a large population (at the time) to do his most valued work? It seemed unthinkable but what if, what if there had been at a point Xenos, or maybe even Chaos, on Holy Terra's surface? No. No that could not possibly be, it would not make sense, the touch of xenos would have been outright destroyed. But Chaos, Chaos had dared to step foot on Terra before, and had paid dearly. Perhaps, The Great Heresy was not the first time Chaos had set foot upon its Hallowed grounds.

It was a horrible thought, but it did have some sense to it.

At the moment however, it didn't matter. What truly mattered was getting back to the chapter. The locator beacon within his armor was active, but the locator itself was mainly meant for planet side recovery, incase he was to fall during conflict and the chapter's Sacred armor needed or could be recovered. There was no chance that the locator itself would be able to broadcast past this planet alone. However, it could be boosted most likely using some of the natives technology. Though not blessed by the Holy powers of the Omnissiah, it was not corrupted in itself and was not under xenos rule. It could still be used, even if may be considered Tech Heresy by some of the more conservative members of the chapter. That was irrelevant, it could be discarded by the return of his sacred armor and safeguarded by his position as 4th Company Captain. All he needed to do was find a city, and by the Will of both the Emperor and the Omnissiah he would not fail.

There were some uncertainties however. He not the distance to the next city from this "Vale". Alas if he was not careful he could aimlessly wander the planet for days. He had the time, but getting back to the Chapter was the primary objective. The next two fall in line were the loyalties of the two warriors he travelled lied. The knight was undoubtedly a straight forward fellow, he had his duty and would do it. He had not broken stride when following the Captain through the woods after the execution of the Heretic. He could most likely be trusted. The other one, was not so. He had seen the man's stare as they walked, despite wearing the helmet. He had seen that stare before. Guardsmen tended to have it when given a particularly hard objective. An objective deemed unworthy of greater warriors than a simple man such as the trillions that made up the Hammer of the Emperor. Charges against heavy weapon emplacements, over no-mans-land, defense against seemingly invincible enemies, uncountable hordes, daemonic foes. Somethings rested doubt in even the most faithful men. This was barely any different, the warrior was lost in though since they had begun walking. He had laid down now, his breathing slowing. His loyalties would be brought to light soon. Issoctus knew he had the time.

He kept stance, watching over the two warriors. The knight brought an end to his prayers, and laid down himself, taking his helmet off to reveal a young face. A few scars crossed along his left check, under two blue eyes. His hand came up and scratched his scalp, close shaved to the head. It was a bit odd for someone such as Issoctus, for the man's face reminded him of the neophytes back in the chapter, back before the implants would take place. It was then that the knight noticed the Captain was gazing upon him.

"Is something the matter?" He asked, the question innocent enough to be deserving of a response.

"No, just reminiscing of the past." The Captain, his voice no longer booming.

"Of home?" the knight continued.

"Yes." the Captain answered after a second.

"I understand, it feels so odd to be here as well. I never would have thought in my wildest dreams that I could be on another planet." He said, eager to share. "I wonder what foul sorceries brought us here, and if we could ever return." he continued.

"It is a foully to attempt to understand the foul magic's of the warp, and many a man have gone insane in the attempt just to concept its idea." the Issoctus began, his voice gravelly and filled with an undertone of disgust. "Enarmor yourself in faith, for it will guide you through these trying times. I know no fear, and though I have an objective now, I still wonder if even My own Chapter shall be able to retrieve me." He finished, his tone taking a small amount of disdain in turn.

"Chapter?" the scrunching of the man's face and the confusion in his voice explained the meaning of the question.

"Yes. I guess it would be better to explain. You see the markings upon my armor?"

"Yes."

"This symbol is of the Iron Hands, one of the chapters in service to the Glorious Will of the God Emperor." he said, the disgust replaced with pride as he started his brief explanation of his home.

"Are you and your 'Chapter' akin to a knightly order?"

"A very adequate comparison I would say. We are a Thousand brothers strong, and we purge the xenos, the traitor, the heretic."

"A sound goal, are you at war with someone? Even if you are I would assume with someone such as you and your brothers that any foe you would ever face could be destroyed with but a single strike of your forces."

"It is naïve of you to ask such a question or assume that we can destroy our enemies in total."

"How so?"

"Because for the past Ten Thousand years me and my brothers have had no rest, no respite, from our foes. Not since the long past days of the Heresy." Issoctus said, his voice adapting, lowering with a deeper tone. "We are not alone. Hundreds of brother chapters fight along side us. Trillions of regular mortal men such as yourself fight, live, and die upon the battle fields of a thousands of worlds daily. Fleets hang in orbit above hundreds of foes, facing our enemies."

"To-o think of such might" Rathenau said, his mouth agape, "How could you not have wrestled control of the heavens and ground from your foes?"

"Make no mistake, at one point we did. The Great Crusade, at the end of the Dark Night. When the Emperor revealed himself and united Terra under one banner. We spread from the light of Sol and into the galaxy, The Legions were created. We reunited humanity and its lost colonies as The Emperor set out to conquer the Galaxy, We found his sons, one by one on lost worlds, rested away from their birth place by the foul, sorcerous powers. It was a time of Legends. Our chapter, once one of the 18 legions, strode forth into the darkness of space alongside our brothers, set forth in his Holy name. It was a grand two centuries."

"Were you there as well?" the knight asked, held firm by the imaginative story woven by the Giant in front of him.

"Nay, I was not. I suppose it is both a curse and a blessing that I was not there."

"Why so?"

"For it was at the end of the second century of the Great Crusade that the Heresy begun." Anger crept into his voice.

"The Heresy?" hesitant to question about what such an event might have been.

"I suppose I must explain to you what the Heresy means to not only the Chapters but to Us, the Tenth Legion itself." Issoctus began, hesitant to share the most dreadful event in the chapter's history. "Though the Emperor made the Legions with his peerless scientific and biological ability, each legion followed a template, for each Legion there was a Primarch, his sons, the greatest of us all. Our Primarch was none other than Ferrus Mannus. Our Lord was a master smith, able to make weapons with his hands alone, no tools needed."

"How-w? Your war gear is unlike anything I have ever seen." Rathenau was shocked, a man able to forge and create the finest of weapons and armor was impossible.

"Our lord had defeated an ancient enemy upon the planet he had landed on, a dragon, this mythical beast had terrified the subjects of humanity upon the world for ages, for no mere weapon could harm it. It was a monstrosity of living metal and though it was of great trial and perseverance that our Lord defeated it. The reward however for killing such a beast however, was that the skin of the creature had molded around our lord's arms, a silvery color stronger than any metal. It was from he who the Legion received his name."

Rathenau was impressed despite the over all vagueness of the story. To think of a warrior that beat a dragon, a mythical beast alone was monumental and worthy of praise, but to receive such a blessing as metal arms able to create weapons, it was a sign, a blessing from the Heavens themselves. "He was the Son of the God Emperor as you said. But does this have to do with the 'Heresy'?"

Issoctus hesitated, looking up to the sky. "I think we should stop for tonight. We have been talking for quite a bit and I am sure you are tired." It was a poor attempted of brushing off the story telling but it seemed to work as Rathenau yawned.

"You are right." he said, but the disappointment in being cut off was evident, "but I do wish to hear the end of this tale." he finished, before leaning back and closing his eyes.

The Captain stood unresponsive, watching and waiting for the man to fall asleep. When he could hear the knight's heartbeats slow without change for an entire minute, he spoke again to the sleeping man.

"Perhaps, but the Heresy is no tale to be retold lightly."

* * *

The sun hung just above the horizon when the Captain had awoken them. The morning was alive with noise, a very sharp contrast to the night before. It was when Rathenau finally raised his head from his somewhat peaceful sleeping place upon the ground that he noticed the fresh carcass of what appeared to be a deer in the clearing, or what he could assume to be a deer considering the antlers atop its very mashed head. He looked to the form of the Captain, to find that he was brushing the blood and skull fragments off of his overly large gauntlet with a small cloth. Though the Captain continued to clean he looked directly at the knight and the form of Sabastion who too had raised his, though his eyes were alight with alarm, and spoke.

"I am under the assumption that you both would require substance before our travels today seeing as you have not eaten anything, so I decided hunting down a natural form of wildlife would calm your basic needs." he stopped, before looking down at his power fist. "Alas a power fist, though good for heavily armored enemies and vehicles, has a very poor reaction to the armor-less form, even when powered off. It also lacks the finesse of a blade required for cutting through objects." He looked back towards the two men now standing up, "Perhaps you may be of assistance in starting a fire to cook a meal and the process of carving away any un-necessary's for the meal?" He asked, before going back to look at his now polished fist. Rathenau and Sabastion looked at each-other eyebrows raised.

"I guess I'll go look for some fallen timber." The knight said before hustling off. Sabastion said nothing to his retreating fellow, and instead turned towards the body of the animal. He reached down to his belt to retrieve his knife, a small thing, about 6 inches long, perfect for cutting off flesh and fat, or stabbing someone in the ribs if you need to. He descended on the animal, knife slowly peeling back the smooth fur of the animal. He worked around the sides of the stomach, grasping around to find the most substantial pieces to cut. The work was tough, and though his knife was sharp some of the more naturally curved areas of the animal were surprisingly resilient to the blade. Needless to say the cutting began to grate against him and his frustration began to show as he tried to start yanking off one of the limbs. It was then he hear the footfalls of the Giant behind him.

"Perhaps," the deep voice began "it would be better if you cut upon this." Sabastion whipped around, to see the Captain standing there, and clutched within his off hand, a boulder the size of a table, and wide around as Sabastion was tall. Jaw hanging low in shock he watched the Captain slowly lower the rock, with almost gentle care, as if weighed nothing, in front of the deer carcass, before reaching down a picking up the deer and setting it back down flat against the smooth surface of the rock.

"H-How did you pick that up?" he said, flabbergast.

"Simple, I just did, it was no feat of strength if that is what you are saying." the Captain said, as if picking up the boulder was an every day occurrence.

"But it's huge, not to include the weight of your armor!"

"It is but a mere boulder, now hand me that knife" the Captain sidestepped the statement and the questions to follow with a demanding tone, his off hand once again open, waiting to receive the required utensil. Sabastion crouched down, picking it the knife up before placing it back into the Giant's waiting hand. The offered tool looked comically small in the hands of the Captain, but there was the next surprise to be given as the Captain deftly maneuvered the handled between his index finger and thumb, almost like a surgeon. He kneeled down to the height of the natural table and reached his arm across, quickly and easy cutting and tearing though tendons and muscles with a inhumane precision. In but a few moments he had carved away more than a few sizeable pieces for the men. He looked up from his work before pointing his non-occupied hand at a few rocks around the area. "Grab those and form them into a circle, we don't want the fire to spread to the trees."

Sabastion walked towards the rocks, silently picking up a couple of rocks at a time before bringing them back to the center of the dirt area, placing them in step besides each other until a sizable ring was in place. It was just then that Rathenau stepped out from within the trees, his arms filled with a large collection of sticks and a few logs. He walked up the ring before setting the pile down, then stretched his back out, but before he could even begin to start filling in the ring an armored fist came forth to the pile, and snatched one of the top sticks off, a rather pointed one. Rathenau and Sabastion both watched as the giant form of the Captain retreated to his table and began sticking the meat upon it, before he turned back to the watching faces of both me.

"Well do you wish to eat this raw? Get that fire built quickly." He said, chastising the two mortals for their laxness. Rathenau snapped into action, moving up the logs at the bottom to rest in a triangular formation, before shoving copious amounts of twigs in-between. He looked at the fire place for a second before he realized something. They had no way to light it. Luckily for them both, Sabastion was well prepared for a bout of a campfire stake out. From within one of the small pouches of his belt he pulled out a small mesh of material, black and no bigger than a handful. The knife, now retrieved from the Captain was held at arm's length towards the fire, and along side it the flint he had produced. The first few strikes gained nothing. The next set gave forth to a few miss sharpened and cast about sparks. The pair afterwards lit the flint within his out-0stretched hands. With but a tug he pulled the material apart and threw the lit piece within the fire pit, where it set about creating a fire from the assorted twigs and bark that had been gathered there.

Within a few minutes a suitable fire was alight, and the two warriors sat themselves beside it, watching as the Captain marched over to the boulder and retrieve his stick laden with meat, before returning to the fire, opposite of them and kneeled, placing the stick and its contents above the flames. In but a few minutes the content began to sizzle and snap, the food creating a noise so unlike the sound of nature around them, all three men sat in silence as they watched the meat with a single minded interest. or so it would seem. Internally, the Captain was passively using his post-human instincts and bodily abilities to not only monitor his two companions but to watch the area around them should any erstwhile predator come searching for an easy meal. Soon enough the meat was done, and the Captain passed the stick between the two men, prompting them to pull the pieces they were wanting of off. He did not however, expect the two men to leave a substantial amount (For them at least), for himself. His helmet tilted in question at the two. He realized already his mistake before they even gave reasons or responses, they had no idea of knowing what he was capable of, or how his body had been changed to continue its mission for several weeks without substance. Alas, both men had already noticed the gesture, and spoke their own thoughts about it.

"It was your kill," Sabastion begun, "I thought it only fair that you partake in the feast upon your own kill." The warrior cast his glance aside quickly, removing his helmet to begin eating upon the warm food within his open palms. It was then that Rathenau spoke.

"I see it should be you, as our un-doubted leader and as one of the God-Emperor's chosen, should be not only able to feast upon the spoils you have graciously shared with us." the man's words were well mannered, , and polite, "I not only thank you for this gift but also for guiding us through the caves back there." Perhaps Rathenau had a better chance at being an ally, useful that is, than the Captain thought, the other warrior held on to tradition yes, but like so many in his chapter it blinded him in its uncompromising ways. It made the Captain uncertain how he could see the contingency between that of his past brothers and the man that ate with him here today, a mortal man no less. The knight however was willing to accept him, someone so strange and mysterious that it lay upon an edge of madness. Rathenau was a man led by actions and deeds, and it appears that the Captain had unknowingly made a great mark upon the mind of the mortal warrior in black, despite knowing each other for less than a full day. The knight turned back to the meal within his gauntlets, before looking back up at the Captain. "Surely Sir, you would allow us the honor of eating in your presence?"

The Captain was dumbstruck for a second, before he swiped aside his gauntlet. "You are fine, go ahead and eat." The Captain stood up, before returning back to the table and setting the stick and its now well cooked contents down.

"Is something wrong?" Rathenau asked, worry in his voice that he had done something to displease the Captain.

"No." The Captain reached up with his now free off hand, and a sharp hissing noise could be heard. The Captain's massive armor blocked the view, and even Sabastion had looked up from his meal in question at the sound. There was a small shifting noise as the Captain lowered his arm again, and the small clunk of Ceramite hitting stone as the form of the Captain's helmet was set down with reverence upon the table. With that the Captain turned back around, meat now in his hand instead of on the stick, and kneeled in front of the fire, his face revealed for the first time.

To say it was a shock to both of the men was an understatement.

Both men were slack jawed as they took in the massive frame of the Captain's face. It was huge, the work of giants, and the jaw chiseled in stone. It was the visage of a smooth headed god, facial expression and radiating power and enlightened by the piercing gaze of stony gray eyes. The face would have been perfect, if not for the steel.

To the surprise of both mortal men, the Captain's face was crudely sheared in half, the left side being perfect, made of flesh and bone, the right side however, was sharp, lined, and hard, steel and fiber compounds created a metal shaped face that started from the crook of the mouth upwards, metal plates and bolts taking the form of a nose bridge and then forming up into a squared holding center for an eye optic, which shone a deep blood red in the light of the fire and rising sun. Wires seemed to come from within the metal and reach farther back into the neck brace of the armor, making it seem as if the man and machine he was entombed in were one. By all rights they were, both neither men had truly thought about it, until now. Sabastion was the first one to break the silence.

"What are you?"

* * *

 **Author's Note: I want to leave with that little cliff hanger. I didn't exactly enjoy writing this chapter, but anybody worth having a story must realise that you can't focus on just one part or portrait such as endless violence. I need to refine my writing a bit more (A lot) in order to make my character creation (see: Rathenau) not to be so rushed, but over all I'm just happy to get this out of the way, it has been sitting on my back burner for far to long. Anyway, enough about my situation, hope you guys can leave some constructive criticism on this or help me out, other wise, I'll see you soon and next chapter gonna be packing some Grimm faced, black mist making, stabbing and bludgeoned, good old and futuristic fashioned violence.**


	6. Chapter 6 To Each Their Own

It was said that after a few centuries of service that a Space Marine could never truly be surprised. For the most part it was true, if one took into their theory to include that most space marines can have an almost perfect memory after their final ascension from a neophyte to a battle brother, and that being deployed to fight often times in the hardest and equally perilous engagements. This gives them some of the seemingly most outraging experiences such as sneaky Orks, Necrons willing to ally with the Imperium's finest, Tau that are actually proficient in melee combat and other seemingly impossible experiences, it would be hard to shake the Emperor's Finest of their battle hardened mettle and steeled minds. If anyone mortal as it was to bring about such a theory it would be quickly shushed and put down by higher-ups and the Inquisition for a seeming Heresy to open a discussion that could negatively impact the image of the Adeptus Astartes. Most mortals would never see the faint sight of the Astartes, so large be the Imperium, when they do take to the field alongside their mortal counterparts of the other Adeptus, they are revered, the Angels of Death were a force of nature, the Will of the God Emperor. Their mission and presence both a herald a disaster and a glimmer of hope to the common soldier. To say anything but praise to their name was Heresy. Mortals were akin to cattle in their presence, and only a few men and women could say that they had been able to not bow their head, much less look them in the eyes and speak to them. Even less could have claimed to speak to a Space Marine on an even level of command. An even smaller number in comparison could have been said to either question or insult a Space Marine in the flesh, those that still live, could be counted on with less then a full digit hand.

To the Captain, Battle Brother of the Iron Hands, in service to the God Emperor for 584 years and counting, the question with such brazen and nearly unconscious intent, that had been thrown at him by this mortal. This, primitive bronze-wearing child, who did not act like the people of the Imperium, unbowed in his presence, as if he did not realize the gigantic warrior before him could snap him in half with no effort. There was nearly nothing a foe could do to him that would have surprised him anymore, but this mortal man, an ally made only of circumstance, to question not only him, but his origins, his chapter, and by extension the Emperor himself without a blink, surprised him for the first time in several centuries. On the inside the Captain was in a flurry of thought, his mind not truly knowing how to react to the question for the millisecond that the question had crossed his ear and audio receiver. On the outside however, he instantly reacted, with the remaining side of his face reacted with nothing more than a raised eyebrow.

To the two men sitting before the giant, the only tell that he had even heard the question was the raised eyebrow. They did not, much as they could not, see the flurry of thought hidden behind the Captain's eyes, mere trails of thought and reaction sequences being travelled down in theoreticals in mere milliseconds, actions and responses were looked at and thrown aside like broken machines faster than humanly possible. The Captain held his gaze on the warrior, his face contorting into a small frown, one that the knight noticed instantly, but even before the knight could react the Captain's massive gauntlet snapped forward, and found its place upon the bronze helmet the warrior wore. The knight could only watch in horror as the Captain's hand tightened, and within a second he crushed the man's skull like a rotten fruit. There was not a sign of discomfort or shame that crossed the Giant's face, only that small little frown, seemingly as if he had just read a poorly written note. Sabastion barely even had time to scream. Despite the horror a small, logical part of his mind spoke to him, to remind him that at least the killing was mercifully quick.

The larger, more spirited part of his mind, seemingly to become fused with the heart in those moments wanted him to cry out, to rise up and strike the Captain for his murder of a warrior asking nothing but a question that he too had wanted an answer to. His heart and the majority of his mind rose up, not listening to the small voice of logic and reason that brought the rest of his mind truth and advise. He cared not, in those moments, that the giant was nearly reaching double his height, or the fact that the Captain's weapons were tools of war, just as the Captain was, and had been soaked in more blood than he could have possibly seen in six life times. His body began to rise with the fervor and seemingly righteousness that flooded his senses, until the small voice returned once more, but this time made itself known.

'Pray tell, what would you do against this Immortal? This man made machine?' it shouted at him, 'How would you strike down something that had swept aside a small army with weapons better than ours, both those for close combat and from afar. We saw the after affects of the Giant's so called "Fire -arm" that spat fire seemingly from the depths of hell itself, we saw him rip open that steel door with nothing but his single fist, we would not stand a chance'. His feverous side stuttered, faltering in its place, and seeing this his reason renewed its attack. '' Our faith may be strong but it is nothing compared to the Captain's, his is encased within it, his armor is holy as much as that "Chain Fist" is, his faith is war and battle for his "Emperor", how could we possibly defeat something like him?' it asked, only for the righteousness to rear its head again "You are weak to think something so inhuman has to defeat the righteousness of true humanity." if thoughts could blink logic would have there, before returning the low dive. 'Are you stupid? He was, is, Human, he was made to be better, his face is as much a symbol to what is as to what he faces. He is a Man Made Weapon, he was forged to be like this, there is no possible way for us to defeat him, and even then we have no reason to. We have no bonds to the man he killed from before our time, we have no reason to stick up for a corpse. The Captain is our only chance of salvation, and if you do not believe that, then it may just be best if we offed ourselves. It serves no purpose fighting over a dead man blind to the light of salvation and I for one feel compelled to follow in the Captain's steps, for he brings not only hope, but the righteousness of a true warrior of true faith.'

The knight was suddenly shook from his mental argument by the movement of the Captain. He rose up, letting what remained of Sabastion's head (for it took the shape of a very flat loaf of bread, the copper helmet and its plume folded at irregular angles) and clenched his slightly bloodied fist. Once again the painful blue light emitted from his large hand, this time however, it was accompanied by an awful stench, akin to that which emitted from a brazier, but many degrees worse. It made him gag, and even as the Captain opened his fist did he take notice. The marble and steel face moved again, and for the first time he heard the Captain's real voice.

"He questioned me, and by doing so questioned the Emperor, and none shall be able to do so in my presence without receiving punishment. Unfortunately the only punishment I am capable of giving is that of death." He said, his voice having lost the grinding tone from the helmet. What took its place was much different, a deep baritone that seemingly resonated from the depths of an immeasurable cathedral, each syllable sounding out in a controlled flow, as if a great war-horn had come into sentience. It resonated strength and courage, as a hero's should, and for a second Rathenau was lost in thought once more, the question in choice being if the Captain was hero, who was he to ignore his Will and Reason. He looked towards the Captain once more, only to find that he had taken several gigantic strides towards the edge of the clearing, his helmet already back in place and his fire-arm firmly in his free hand. "We move." was all that was said, the gravelly voice leaving the knight scrambling for his weapons and helmet.

* * *

They walked, at least the Captain did, with knight scrambling to keep up with his massive pace. Massive armor shook the ground with each step, every footfall accompanied by three more of a smaller variety alongside the clinking of chainmail against plate. Birds called out from the tree tops as the Captain plowed his way through the underbrush, small branches that stuck out like dead arms snapped against his broad plate, allowing for the knight to follow behind relatively in-hindered save for the merciless pace. It had been a few hours since breakfast and the "incident' and the Knight's feet and legs were starting to ache. Just as he was about to say something however, he collided heavily with the back of the Captain's now still, armor, the result knocking him on his arse. A bit in-dignified and filled with the obvious question of why he had stopped, opened his mouth only to be silenced by the Captain's gravelly voice.

"The foe has us surrounded, now is the time to fight." It was now noticeable to Rathenau that they had arrived in a rather large clearing, the trees forming a sort of ring wall around them. The sun, at its noon sat high above, left the clearing open to light, but the tree surrounding it were packed close, and provided just enough shade for it to seem dark. He turned, and put his back to the Captain, raised his weapons, and gazed back the way they had come. There, in the trees, right where the Captain had walked through and a few feet off the ground sat a pair of eyes, pure red and filled to the brim with anger. A shape darker than the shade formed around the eyes, giving it the appearance of some animal. Breaking his gaze away from the thing, he looked side to side, and saw that many more pairs were forming on the edges, starring directly at him and the Captain. A small shiver ran down his spine. He was a warrior of holy strength yes, but the amount of creatures that were out there seemed more than enough to kill the two of them, despite the Captain's colossal armor and mighty weapons, even if the enemy had to resort to suffocating the mighty warrior with the bodies of the dead. He continued to shift, a direct opposite to the Captains almost statue like stance, watching as the first creature stepped from the trees.

Its body was that of a wolf, long and thin, covered in fur, and its skull stretched to a mouth of horribly white teeth. The similarities ended there, for no wolf had fur as black as night, no wolf was as big in stature as a bear, no creature had eyes as red as mantle, and no creature that he knew of had protrusions of bone and tattoos as white as it's teeth. These were not creatures of nature nor of god, he realized, as more followed the first out of the trees, lowered to the ground and snarling, they were spawns of the Devil himself, sent to kill them and devour their souls. He shook the fear off, and replaced it with an anger, though he was misleading himself as to why the creatures were there, he knew that it was a simple matter of survival for him and the Captain, were as instead of Human foes they faced a much more elusive and evil enemy, demons. With his shield and Warhammer raised, his armor and tunic shining in the midday sun, and a prayer on his lips, the crusader Rathenau prepared himself to the sound of a larger wolf's howl, and braced himself as the beasts charged in unison.

* * *

The first sign that revealed that they were being hunted was the silence, no more birds chirped in the trees, no more wind shook branches or curled the grass, and the disappearance of all of the local wildlife on the auspex and thermal readings within his helm. The next was the return pings on the auspex once they continued for a few more minutes, still a few hundred meters out, but closing at a steady rate. Spread out the pings move, strictly out of their pathway but still able to quickly intercept depending on their bulk. Two hundred meters out from the interceptors was when it became clear that the creatures that hunted them were in natural, the thermal readings from his eye pieces only picking up the faint outline of the creatures in-between the trees, standing out amongst nature for their seemingly cool body temperature. The Captain had seen dead bodies on frozen moons with higher thermals than these creatures. Twenty five meters in they crossed into a clearing, large enough for a hab block, and no cover in sight. The perfect place for an ambush, and in the exact center is where he stopped.

The knight, bless his mortal form, was distracted and therefore crashed into his armored back, the hard contact of their armor offering out a bitter clang and sent the smaller man falling backwards onto his rear. He did not go to help the knight up, rather deciding to hold his ground. The knight was quick to shuffle back upon his feet, and by then he had noticed the enemies that had shifted out of the dark shadows. The feral creatures of black were no beings of nature, they were hollow in instinct, driven to their actions by an insatiable anger and raw fury for all things not similar to it. The Captain should have known, he had fought followers of the Blood God before, the only difference being that these creatures, while similar in shape and size to the Hounds of Chaos, were not of the Star. They belonged to something else, something just as unholy, and just as dangerous. The beast stepped from the shadows, an even larger one parted outwards, tall enough to rival the mighty shape of the Captain upon it's hind legs. It let lose a terrible howl, and with it the beast charged from the forest in a great horde, more flooding as the first wave began to reach the Captain and his charge.

As the first creature reared up in a leap the Captain reached an absolute upon the nature of the beasts; They would die like servants of the foul warp entities today.

* * *

It was often said that those who not only served the Lord, but fought in his name, were the strongest of any warrior. Faith could be as deadly as any blade, and as protective as any armor. Rathenau, however, knew that on the battlefield faith could only provide as much as a man could give. He had long ago learned to take the words of preachers with a grain of salt and a do heft of sensibility, for no matter how much faith a man had, he could not face an army alone with but his faith. Most of the preachers who stayed within the grand Cathedrals, churches, chapels of the homeland were not well versed in the actual war. They were orators, meant to rouse the masses of the faithful, and many had no been partial to the sight of blood, much less the killing of another man. Faith could not change reality, for God had shaped the world to be both home and a challenge to his Chosen people. Faith could only push a man so far.

This did not seem to apply to the Captain however.

The Captain was a whirlwind of fury and death and even though he had barely managed to catch a few looks throughout the combat, it further pushed him to believe that the Captain was more than mortal. His armor, all encompassing and gigantic, did not appear to hold the man back from locomotive beyond the human body. His Relic weapon fell and split the spawns of darkness with every downward swing, the horrible cry of the blade attached to the fist crying out for the constantly falling enemies around the two. The way the Captain moved was rigid, and perfectly in the sync with the combat around him, constantly assaulting the foes or blocking what would appear to be a fatal strike towards the gaps of his armor.

That was not to say that the enemy did not touch the Captain, no, they were much to numerous for that, but when one enemy finally made to strike him, it would fall upon the thick plates of his armor, barely leaving a scratch from claws that would have severed a regular man in half. He could not begin to even guess at the Captain's body count, but he knew that every minute or so, the Captain's hand cannon would fire, the sound leaving his head rigging inside his helmet, and mere moments latter one of the larger beasts would crash to his side, a over sized hole in their chest or their whole head and neck missing.

This was not to say that the Captain was doing all the work, no, Rathenau had received a fair share of kills from their seemingly uncountable enemies. Thought the combat had been going for less than thirty minutes, his Warhammer was soaked in the dark ichor that seemed to count as life force among these forsaken beast, and his shield had been nearly stripped of its iconography by the number of blows it had received. His clock was in tatter and his feet repeatedly stomped down the slowly dissolving bodies of their foes to gain purchase in the slick muck that was forming. He had received a scathing blow to his head, leaving a cut upon his forehead that was starting to blind his right eye and a massive dent in his helmet. He had returned the blow with his Warhammer, striking the creature in the skull with it's spiked face.

New beast had entered the fray, both upon land and ground. Large boars and massive Ursa bolster the ranks of their wolf like brethren, each with their own alphas. Massive black birds circled above them, sometimes diving or seeming down large clusters of sharp feathers like a volley of airs. The Feathers left marks upon his shield similar to the claw swipes and made a unique pinging sound as they bounced off the Captain's armored form. The Captain responded when one of the largest ones dived with his might cannon, the projectile going straight into the beast gaping maw. The beast had exploded above them, showering them in ichor, before careering with massive force into one of the large bears.

His further inspection was left halted in its tracks back an ear-ringing screech from the tree line in front of him, followed by the ground shaking crash of toppled trees. There, in front of him closing at a speed belaying of its size, was a massive scorpion, easily to stories in height, its multiple eyes focused on him despite the numerous creatures in the way. Like a boat against the waves, the horde parted, either being thrown aside by the thing's greater mass or just moving out of instinct. He began to raise his voice, attempting to yell over the dim of battle and the Captain's gruesome weapon at the same time, urgently trying to warn the man. His voice was drowned out even as it left his mouth, and he had no way to garner the Captain's attention besides physically touching him, and in the chaos of battle, that single moment it might take could be just as fatal as the beast running him down.

Caught in a desperate situation, Rathenau, with a low curse, set about getting the Captain's attention without dying in the process.

He had seen the beast appear on Auspex behind him, same with all the beast, due to it's size, and the swarm of enemies, he mistook it for a rather solidly clumped group of beast, when he felt the first foot falls reach him however, he knew differently. They were heavier than any of the beast that had appeared so far, and too well sync'd to be just a simple pack of these beast. His suspicions were further confirmed by the sudden yell the knight gave out when the beast had broke the tree line, the man was afraid, something that he had been hiding very well despite their seemingly horrendous situation. It was a new beast, yet he did not have the time to confront it, any second he took his combi-bolter off of a target it left him exposed, it was being used as much as a blunt weapon as a firearm, much to his display. the bolter had less than two magazines left, but the melta, thankfully, had a built in power source, it did not have the same rate of fire, and instead opted for a longer recharge and cooling time, but was self-sufficient. The beast bearing down upon the knight would feel the roar of it's scorched bore.

The creature had picked up its pace, and twenty meters away is when he was caught by an unseen strike on the left side of his armor, below the arm. It was nothing to worry about, it didn't even scratch the paint, but produced a deep thump. It was not made by a claw, at least he was fairly certain.

Fifteen meters, a loud screech was released, and the steps of the creature quickened once again, a steady drumbeat against the ground. Once again, a strike was landed, this time he caught a glimpse of the offending strike, a hint of leather bands capped with a steel trapezoid. It was nothing of his armor, so it had to be the knight.

Ten meters, and another cry is let out, near deafening as the beast is nearly atop them, a final, repetitive strike lands upon the same place, and it is now the Captain realizes that the Knight was doing this to warn him, thinking he didn't not hear his own words over the din of battle. Understandable, and remarkable even, that he would do such a courteous action. It was high time he repaid the favor.

"Duck."

He had spoken the order at room level volume, however, his helm had amplified it so that he could be clearly heard over the mosh pit of beast. Thankfully, the knight followed the instruction within an instant, moving with a speed that even surprised the Captain. In the matter of time the knight had lowered himself, he had spun his body, right arm swinging over the man's head while his left struck out towards the direct front of where he was currently facing, the Chainfist singing as it came into contact with the reared chest of one of the larger alpha beast. His eyes were not focused on that beast however, instead staring down his outstretched arm at the beast charging towards them. It had pincers that rivalled his size and a stinger reared above it that was as large as a Sentinel's body. multiple eyes stared at his helms lenses with the same mindless fury as its brethren. It skittered upon the ground on ten massive legs, and it's arrow shaped body was easily the size of a Baneblade, covered in over-lapping plates.

His Combi-bolter leveled itself at the beast's gigantic eyes in a millisecond, and the next was spent depressing the secondary trigger.

* * *

His vision was bathed in a mixture of gold, orange, and deep blue as the sound of what could only be the roar of a fabled dragon passed over-head. He brought his shield up to defend his eyes from both the heat and the overbearing lights that consumed his vision. Though his reactions were swift, Rathenau was already to late, for a second later the overbearing heat was gone, and the only light that pressed upon his closed eyelids was the sunlight filtering through the gaps in the now present clouds. He lowered his shield just a fraction, and opened them.

Gone, was the perfidious beast that meme moments ago was bearing down upon him like a cohort of horsemen, in it's place was the shell of the creature, its head and most of it's large body gone, struck from existence from the Giant's weapon. Some of the frontal legs still existed, but they were separated by a spreading cone of immolated ground, and were slowly disintegrating just like the other beast had. The Creature's massive stinger was uncurled, having been pulled down by gravity with the remains of the rear of the creature.

Many of the creatures were reeling, many having raised their paws or hooves to cover ears and eyes, such fragile sensory outputs having been overloaded by the singular firing of such a weapon. More still, fell back at the sight of their obliterated counter part, a fraction of their bestial intellect pushing forward the thought to flee from such devastation wrought by a single figure. Both men knew that such a feeling would not last.

It came as a surprise to the Knight then, that the Captain spoke to urged him, "Go, make haste from this place, I will cover you."

"And what of you?" the knight was appalled, to be usher from the battlefield like some sort of squire, yet, at the same time his mind knew that he would eventually collapse if the enemies did not stop their endless assault. Even now, he felt the fatigue pierce his adrenaline infused state. Eventually, that fatigue would make him slip up, and the mistake could most likely end his life. Still, what of the Captain? The Captain could almost feel the man's hesitation, and swiftly dispatched it.

"Rest assured, I have fought enemies fiercer than this. I can cover you to the break of the clearing, and distract the monsters to me. I beseech you to live out your life, or make great tales for the people upon this world. Go, and may the Emperor light your path!" The knight, though still his thoughts lingered on the fate of the Captain, nodded his head none the less, and broke off in a sprint through the twisted, disintegrating remains of the giant scorpion, His shield raised and weapon lowered behind him, ready to fall like a comet on any who crossed his path. The daemons had regained their senses, and had begun to intercept him. One leaped from afar, and Rathenau stopped, bracing himself for the impact as two more charged from the sides. The Captain had not followed him, so where was the aforementioned cover? As the leaping daemon had reached its zenith, so did the Captain make his cover apparent, in the form of a long drawn out thunder.

Once again, Rathenau was left with his ears ringing, but this time he could see the results of the Captain's weapon. The Leaping one had been hit directly in the chest, it's upper body having looked like it had fully disappeared. the ones that had taken notice of him where merely disappearing as well, their heads being wiped from existence in a shower of black sludge. He looked back at the Captain, and the smoking weapon in his free hand.

"GO!" was all the reply he got, his smoking weapon tilted towards his objective. The last sight he received of the Captain was of the giant man spinning around, his oversized fist glowing with power as it struck down a beast that had tried to approach on his turned back. Rathenau turned, and with greater haste than before, sought to exit the clearing. Any beast that tried their lucky to intercept him anymore were brought down in precise shots, often times many meters away from him, truly the Captain was a master of ranged and melee combat. He broke into the tree line uninterrupted. He kept moving, not once turning back to look through the trees, and only stopping to kill some of the smaller daemons when they got in his way. He inwardly prayed for the Captain as the sounds of combat slowly disappeared from his ears.

* * *

He was somewhat glad the knight had made it out, the man had fought incredibly well, despite the odds thrown against them, and now that he was gone, he could play unfairly with these so called "daemons". Watching his back had made it somewhat harder to bring to bear the true might of an Adeptus Astartes, mainly because the other man who was watching his own back, was mortal and there for could have been easily dispatched by their numerous foes. The Captain was impressed that he survived. Now, it was time to take the fight, to the foe.

He charged forth into the massing bodies, his fist falling like a great meteor, the chainfist roaring in glee at tasting the flesh of the foe again. His combi-bolter became a bludgeon, smashing into errant limbs and white plated heads, the denser metal destroying them just as easily. Black sludge dispersed from dead and dying creatures, cast back to the warp as the Captain continued his onslaught. More foes charged him, and the he once again felt alive, doing right in dispensing the Emperor's justice to all of these lowly beast.

No matter the foe, he pushed into them, teeth and claw leaving no ill effect upon him nor his armor. Like a great dance he struck out, decimating the ranks of the seemingly endless foes pouring from the forest. Those at his rear had no time to strike, as the fist came back and with a seemingly impossible twist was raised and lowered in a never ending chopping motion. There was no art to be found here however, this was battle, and in the heat of it the Space Marine proudly displayed the mechanical precision and efficiency that his chapter was known for, and set about to destroy the Daemons with utmost determination and fervor.

* * *

Hours had passed.

The daemon's bodies, though seeming to disintegrate after death, had been repetitively destroyed at such a rate that they had piled up like small hills, black mush streaming off the sides and constantly tainting the ground. A small layer of mist clung a foot off the ground in all places, a side effect of the rapidly decaying bodies. The clearing had been widened considerably, either from the beast that crawled out of the forest or from the Captain tearing them out himself. The sky had darkened as well, black clouds loomed over the battlefield in mirror to the ground below. It was a nightmare.

Foes encircled the Captain as in fought amongst the dead, his armor covered in the sludge of thousands dead. His fist still roared and sparked, yet his bolter had fallen near silent, attempting to preserve ammunition in all but the most dire of situations. Despite the weak nature of the creatures, the wear of battle had begun to show on his once clean plate. Thousands of scratches intermixed upon his war plate, leaving a hellish appearance in it's silver and black paint. Multiple furrows and tears marked the surface from deeper and stronger strikes, a few almost piercing the Ceramite protecting his form. what little iconography upon his armor remained was in shreds, both the seal of the Chapter, the Crux Terminus, and the Imperial Aquila having been reduced to lowly shards barely sealed upon his armor.

He fought, and fought, his senses aware only of the enemies in his direct vicinity, his instincts guiding him as well as his faith and knowledge. His auspex had at some point been disabled by a rather strenuous blow to the helm. He could feel the heavy steps coming from all around him, but he kept fighting, it was all he could do. He wrestled with one of the large scorpion beast, the smaller creatures attempting to lash at his back while he was distracted.

In an astounding display of skill the Captain dodged a hook from one of the claws of the beast returned the blow with his chainfist. The fist caught upon the hard shell, screeching as the organic matter gave way to the displacement field around the fist before being cleaved off of the arm that wielded it. The beast gave a shriek, before it was silenced by the Captain pushing his fist forward into its awaiting maw, the fist pulping through the skull like and over ripe fruit. It exploded in a an ear bursting pop, the contents of the head spraying a new coating of dark viscera onto the Captain. He turned, but was uncertain when he noticed all the beast had all backed away.

And then he heard it.

The Applause.

* * *

She had felt Him die. At first she was ecstatic, over-joyed at the thought that her ancient opponent upon this word had finally fallen, and celebration must be arranged. it was then her common sense came back in full force. He was dead, but the reason as to why was unclear, she did not see it through the eye's of her creatures, and her pupil had not contacted her just yet, despite the fall of Beacon. She would be busy, but she would have definitely made contact just to announce her accomplishment.

She needed to know how.

Her creatures swarmed, from both land and ground, to find him, or what remained. Within minutes she discovered through their eyes that he did not die in the vault, but rather made it through an intricate tunnel system that lead to the entrance of a mine. Further exploration revealed that the mine was populated by the white Fang, or rather had been, in a way. The fang were all still their, but they were dead, all of them. Their bodies were strewn about, tossed aside, shot, and burned. It was a savage death, something that her enemy would never do, but was very akin to her precious children would. A fire had raged here, burning the camp down within the cavern, and had collapsed the door partially, sunlight peaking through. her creatures set upon the door with reckless abandon at her command, the burned frame falling within seconds to the strength of animalistic rage.

What greeted her outside was quite the surprise.

A pair of rails lead twenty feet out of the mine, a cart upon them at rest at the end of the track. The cart was rusted, the steel corroded and old. It wouldn't have looked out of place if not for the small tuff of white and green visible from the peak of the cart.

And the massive amount of dried blood coating the lip and back of the cart.

The creatures, sensing the flesh that lie within approached the cart, but hesitantly, the feedback from her quite evident despite their hunger. they creeped forward, slowly coming up to the cart. For a second, she hesitated before looking over the lip, not quite certain what she would find. her apprehension slipped in the face of her curiosity. what rested within surely surprised her.

Ozpin was at eternal rest, his body laying in the cart, hands at his sides and feet propped upon a crate. His green suit was torn apart, completely ravaged at the chest, revealing his body, or what remained. he looked as if he was torn asunder from the inside, his ribcage was pushed outward and his organs were just bloody viscera sitting around the cart. The hole that was his chest, was akin to a cannon ball had hit him, and his arms were barely attached to the remained of his shoulders. His eyes stared up at the open sky, and for a second she wondered what he saw in the face of his killer. Alas, curiosity was once more put aside, and she commanded her creatures outward into the forest, looking for the person who caused this.

She was both exited and angry in a mixing of emotions that was somewhat incomprehensible. On one had, she wished to congratulate whoever accomplished killing the Head Master. it was no easy feat, even he was wounded. Equally, she was near destructive in her fury, wondering what fool would steal her kill, she had planned to make the old man suffer, as he watched his world died.

The Mother of Beast was just as animalistic as her children as she was evil. whoever stole what belonged to her rightfully would be given the award of her presence, their punishment would be death by her own hand. It would be a terrible honor, and as she continued the trail of though, the more savory it grew.

* * *

She had set out the instant his body had been found, departing from her Stronghold in the Old-world for the first time in Millennia. The world of men and faunas should have considered it an honor to have her walk upon the soil of the New lands, that of the kingdoms.

Her children born of wings were the first to find the transgressors, in the forest but mere miles away from the crime. Nevermores circled overhead above the trees, somewhat hidden from the gathering of the three men on the clearing upon the ground. they watched the party, of what appeared to be two heavily armored males and a strange robot sat about a fire. Strangely she could only see the two men, however, the robot's head case seemed shrouded, it's cover and her angle not giving her a reasonable view from the skies. Their arms were simplistic, if not archaic, for their appeared to be no moving parts to signify a transforming weapon used by Hunters. There appeared not to be a fire-arm among them, and the Robot, while massive, only appeared to have the offensive abilities stemming from its one over-sized fist, from which a strange blade was attached at the bottom.

The men were both heavily armored, more so than any hunter she had ever seen, but their heraldry was unknown to her. Both men appeared to be vastly different, armed in what appeared to be uniforms of old times, and yet there was certain air about them. It wasn't Aura, no it was something more basic than that, it was perhaps comradeship? That only left the giant robot. Interesting as it was, it was still smaller then a Death stalker, and would most likely be crushed underneath her endless horde if she wished it. It was of no further concern to her.

Still, despite their strange nature, they would die, she was only mere hours away from them. She began to remove her presence from the conscious of her child, only to snap back at the glimpse of the robot moving its hand to the helmeted head of the first warrior. Just as quickly as it was raised, was the fist clenched, and within it the warrior's head. The other warrior seemed taken aback by the robot's movements, yet he did not try to stop the machine from killing the other man. It seemed the warriors were not the ones in control, but rather the robot, or perhaps now, it would be artificial intelligence. Interesting. she continued to watch as the warrior gathered up his weapons, and replaced his helmet, before the robot turned and begun to march into the forest, the man following behind him in quicker succession.

* * *

At combat, they excelled, even past those huntsmen that she had the fortune of viewing in the years past, the robot far exceeding her previous assumptions and expectations. She also did not know what to think of his weapons, the fist having a powerful aura around it, not that of the soul but of energy, and the odd firearm that he carried, that split apart bodies or simply made them disappear. The warrior had taken to guarding the robot's rear, which was odd considering that it was now obvious he wasn't a huntsman, he had no aura, and it was noticeable from here that he was slowly fatiguing. He would fall, and the robot short after, but before that, she would have his name. With a single mental pulse she ordered her spawn back, but before she could bring her mount to push forward the A.I did something even stranger.

It spoke to the warrior, a deep gravely voice akin to that of stone bouncing together. It urged the warrior away, firing into her children as they renewed their attack, covering the slight resistance that pushed after the fleeing man.

Now she realized it. what lie within that armor was no robot, nor A.I, but a Warrior in its own. This was new, and now much more exiting than her nemesis's demise. She could smell it off of him, he was the killer, and he was strong, he was not made from the kingdoms nor villages of Remnant, but of something far away. That was why the armor appeared so strange, it was not of this world, it was from beyond the veil and the darkness of night beyond, but it was still familiar in a way.

She was ancient, but this armor was familiar in a world that was completely inferior to her, she did not acknowledge the creations made by the mortals of this world, so how could she be so stuck on this.

It struck her like a lightning bolt.

The armor, the weapons.

They were the remains of the Old Night.

* * *

 **Author's Note: you guys probably don't care, considering that I have no plans of being a "serious" writer, and that I'm inconsistent, and this isn't something I have the most passion about. I've been working on this chapter for about a month at most, and it was hard to say how I wanted the story arch to go. This is part one of two, and to be honest I have no idea when I'll release part two. Still, you like it or have a question, drop me a Review or something.**


	7. Chapter 7 A Dream That Cannot Be

**Now I ended the last chapter a bit hastily alongside the chapter before that not being fully executed how I imagined it, but to answer any questions about Salem (yes, who else would have control of Grimm in such a way) piecing together the armor and weapons as elements of old night. I'm under the assumption that during the Great Crusade that Remnant is re-united with the imperium, but is a fringe world and does not become such a hard stuck Fortress/Agri/Forge world, but instead remains as a frontier world after all the Grimm are seemingly "wiped off the face of the planet" and when the HH goes down that warp storms block it off. So, the grimm come back and Imperial and pre-Crusade tech and knowledge is decaying at an amazing speed due to the constant attrition nature that the Grimm make. So, Salem knows what the Captain's armor looks like because she was around during the Great Crusade, but essentially went into a short few centuries hibernation with the Grimm so they wouldn't get annihilated. In that context, its a vague memory because of the long nap and then not seeing it at all after she reawakens. She almost completely forgets as the mortals on remnant slowly decline to using an old resource upon the planets surface that is Dust, so she becomes complacent an nigh forgetful of weapons and technology of the Imperium.**

The memory was a slap in her face, and for a second she allowed herself to be put on the back foot. It had been centuries since she had seen armor like that, the memories, while now being recalled to her, were blurry and unclear. She remembered their arrival, though merely a few hundred, able to beat back even the strongest of her creatures. she remembered that they were swift and brutal, and for the first few, short lived encounters her children had, that they were a new breed of hunters, with mysterious powers and incredible technology. That was where the similarities ended. These new warriors, did not work alone, they did not hound over the kills they made, they were more focused on destroying her children than protecting the pitiful fools who inhabited her world. The memories took color and she could see so much more of them. Clad in white and blue, with a plethora of strange oddities; large firearms that would make mockery at the simple carbines the natives use now a days, great blades, axes and hammers, that roared or sizzled louder than any beast, Armor's either similar to the one the warrior in front of her wore or smaller, but no less daunting and just as sturdy, and most importantly of all, a large banner, marked the same white and blue, with interesting symbols mark upon it, but most prevalent among this illustrious tabard, was a great golden maw, it's teeth sunk into a planet. They killed uncountable amounts of her kin, forcing her into a deep slumber to avoid destruction, and when she awoke, they were gone. They shouldn't have matter, not after all this time, yet here, here was one of those memories, clad in dark colors of black and silver, like a vengeful spirit.

Yet it was alone.

If there were more they would have announced their presence in a brash manner, a tide of destruction simply focused upon eradicating her kin for the second time, perhaps to fully hunt her down and put a stop to her immortal schemes for good. Yet there was none of that, only a sole warrior, and though he was a maelstrom of slaughter and martial ferocity he was only one. It did not matter how much skill the warrior had, it did not matter how advanced their weapons or armor, shear numbers can always be relied on to put a sole combatant down. It would do well to let her children have the honor of killing this foe. It would be a relaxant for her frustrations to watch this walking piece of history be buried underneath a mound of bodies. So enthralled by the prospect of destroying the past she nearly had forgotten why she was there in the first place. Ozpin.

This metal monstrosity had the gall to claim her arch enemy's life for his own kill tally. That was unacceptable, and as such, deserved retribution. The perspective of death for the warrior had changed; instead of being buried alive, she commanded her kin to tear at him, wear him out, make him suffer piece by piece, until she was satisfied with the results.

The desire to kill multiplied a thousand-fold as she goaded her creatures towards the warrior.

* * *

A full day passed, the sun falling and rising once more as Grimm and Astartes faced off in a duel of epic proportions. Foul ichor and blacken bodies of bone, shell, and fur littered the gigantic clearing, piled high despite the unnatural decomposition of the creatures of darkness. the clearing had expanded as combat took its toll on the natural environment of the forest, flora uproot and full tree strewn about by either claw or massive fist, oddly structured around the pile of corpses. All in all, the clearing had transformed from a serene little grassland into a dark mound in the form of a primitive alter, stacked high with the sacrifices of fallen beast.

Yet the Captain look nearly untouched, saved for his scratched paint.

The hours had made her blatant furry at the warrior leave her, replaced with a calm manner of inspecting the warrior as he fought off every Grimm creature short of a Goliath in size. the numbers had not made a difference, that much was clear, and while she could no doubt outlast his endurance, her patience was waning, and because of that, she drew back her kin, and approached the warrior herself, solely commanding her personal mount forward into the clearing.

* * *

Applause. Blasted and warp damned applause is what he received for such a trivial challenge based upon wave after wave of uncountable enemies of all different manners and sizes. Like this was all some sort of game to whoever commanded these creatures. The source that had pinged on his auspex finally broke through the trees, its giant legs brushing full sized oaks out of the way as it simply trudged into the edge of the clearing. it halted, and he could finally see the source of the clapping, based upon the back of the oversized creature, held aloft by an embroiled saddle of dark red and black cloth, seamed by matching crystals. The rider matched her mount's attire, a slim profile that was cloaked in a flowing maroon robe. However, the passenger was just as alien as the warp spawn before him. her face was a pale white, lined by ridged lines of dark crimson, that led from her neck all along her face to the back of her head dress, which the ends were crowned by crystals, similar to those upon the saddle. A witch well vested in the foul sorceress of the warp if he ever laid eyes upon one.

"Well done, warrior, you impress me with your sheer ferocity, twice more your mercilessness." The accursed thing said, her voice easily flowing into his helm's audio receptors despite the distance between them. He was not phased by the blatant look of superiority she gave him.

"Have you come here just to compliment me, _witch_?" he growled out impatiently, "or grovel before I wipe you from the face of the material realm?" she twitched at that, her composure faltering slightly at the blatant disregard for her obvious air of superiority. A small sneer broke through as she spoke.

"You find me much more of a challenge than that naïve fool Ozpin. I will bury you here, and your body will be left to rot after I see fit to your punishment for stealing what was rightfully mine." The captain chose not to respond, no doubt the witch would be left to summon more power if he did not act immediately. Summoning the machine spirits of his ancient armor, he strode forth, pushing the legs to the limit as the ancient Terminator armor gather the speed to rush the Goliath and it's rider. The Goliath stampeded forwards at the will of it's master, and from the edges of the clearing, the other warp spawn moved to attack him as well. As they neared each other, the Goliath raised its right leg, looking to stomp down upon the Astartes that was barreling towards it, only to find that as it's foot descended to hit, the warrior changed the momentum and direction of his armor, opting to instead slam the several tons worth of adamantium and ceramite armor alongside, more importantly, the powered chain-fist, with it's blow glowing gauntlet, into the other frontal leg.

With a sickening snap and ear piercing roar, the chain-fist, with the momentum backing it akin to a demolisher round, dug elbow deep into the beast leg, ripping apart sinew and muscle, chewing upon fat, and utterly shattering bones the size of trees. the beast roared in agony, rearing upwards with the movement tearing the chain-fist free of its warp flesh confines, before slamming back upon the earth, the impact sending even the Captain's bulk back across the clearing, and utterly eradicating the decaying bodies underneath it. While the frontal leg was now mulched beyond what was realistically possible, it still moved forward (albeit with a heavy limp and a slower pace), it's head and tusk lowered ready to skewer the Astartes as it was chided and pushed by it's master's will. The captain had regained his standing already, and his combi-bolter spat death at the poor mockery of a charge. Great chunks of bone face plate were utterly carved away as bolts detonated, and a few had blown away several of the tusks on the side of the beast's face.

A sense of precognitive warning rang out from within his armor, as suddenly his vision was impaired by a series of foul Doom bolts, cast from the still present Warp witch. Although, the hits all landed upon his chest piece, they did not breach his armor, merely weakened it according to the Machine spirits. It was a blessing from the Emperor himself that they did not utterly destroy him. the Doom bolts however had distracted him from the goliath as it had finally bridged the gap between them, and swung it's remaining tusk in an arc at him. The Captain braced himself for the blow and raised his Chain-fist.

The tusk were caught within the mighty weapon's grip, but were not decaying at a fast enough rate despite the rather tell-tale deafening sound of dense bone upon ancient metal. So the Captain improvised, his combi-bolter shifted, and a great gout of flame was released into the monster's un-injured frontal leg. The promethium within burred away black fur and muscle till all that remained was the impressively sized bone. The beast collapsed near instantaneously, the pressure from the swing releasing as the creature buckled forward, and with it, it's rider flew from her perch, and directly upon the still decaying bodies. A curse sprung from her lips, even as she lifted herself up, foul and un-holy magic gathering in the palms of her hands.

The Captain, seeing the immobilized Goliath as no longer a threat, turned, and advanced upon the witch as she gathered herself, his combi-bolter raised and firing off burst in here direction. She raised a hand, and the bolts stopped, rotating slowly in the air before detonating, creating a small screen of explosions as she fired a volley of bone spikes from behind. The captain's helm marked the approaching projectiles before they broke the screen, and the secondary trigger of the combi-bolter was depressed, a cone of flame instantly melting most of the small lethal spikes, the ones escaping the cone embedding themselves harmlessly upon the edge of his shoulder and hood plates. beats lunged from their places among the bodies, either knocked aside or shot down before reaching him as he continued his relentless advance. At ten paces he was assaulted by an ursa Major, the beast grabbing his chainfist. He wrestled with the beast, making sure to fire off another flame burst in the direction of the witch, who simply blocked up with a red shielding, before using the but of the gun to bash the Ursa's head in.

This change of targets left him somewhat exposed however, as another two Ursa caught at him from the side, to re-establish control of the fist, and a small pack of wolves attempting to hold his Bolter down with their jaws, two losing their heads for not being quick enough to dodge the barrels. This gave the witch the time she needed however, as she cast a pair of chains upon the Astartes, ensnaring both of his limbs and the animals holding them in shackles of warp infused power. The beast cried out, pain unbearable but the Captain merely grunted, testing against his bonds as the creature's grips weakened. he found himself embolized, and the witch, approached him at leisure, one of her free hands drawing forth a dagger of pure darkness.

"You truly are something Warrior." she whispered as she moved directly in front of him. The height difference was apparent, and she once again pooled forth her magic to shackle his knees, and bring him into a kneeling state, his armor resisting the movement and himself cursing the witch that was just within his grasp. She brought the dagger to his helmet's seal and begun to cut. "let's see what you really look like."

The seal hissed as it was finally cut free, and she levitated the heavy helmet off of him, casting it aside to gaze upon his broken face. He snarled at her, his metal shining and his hate filled eyes never wavering from her visage despite the dagger hovering very close to his throat. "well, I was truly not expecting that, it dulls the ideas a bit considering you're half machine." she said, her face going from over bearing contempt to a slight pout, as if someone had stolen her sweet roll. "Anything to say before we start handsome?" She asked the Captain.

" _Die Witch."_

The Captain spat in her face, and she instinctively recoiled back, but not before sending the dagger towards his throat. It pierced the flesh and the wind pipe, slightly, but she was already too far away. "Why you insol- _aaaaAAAHHHHHHH!_ " she suddenly screaming, as her forehead suddenly begun to burn. the acidic spit of the Space Marine eating away at the facial features of Salem. not enough to kill her unfortunately.

But enough to break her concentration.

The infernal chains holding the Captain down snapped and disappeared back into the immaterium, its other occupants long dead as their bodies collapsed to the ground. In a flash the chain fist came up, and punching directly into the witch's chest, sending her flying despite the reddish flaring of her infernal shield. He strode after her, picking up his helmet upon the way and placing it firmly back upon his head, the auto sealant trying to repair the damage done by the dagger. He found the Witch laying down in the black ichor, heavy breaths of air expelling from her chest with a slight gurgle, an obvious set of broken rips and internal punctures. Fitting for a creature like her the Captain found himself thinking. he levelled the Combi-bolter one last time at her broken body.

" _Burn, Witch."_

The Captain depressed the trigger and held it, watching as the blessed promethium rolled and boiled of her body. She barely screamed as she was roasted alive, the fire consuming her in a matter of seconds, but still he held the trigger. He did not know why, as if expecting some reward or honor to be presented to him, to be cast from this accursed dream and be placed back in his familiar reality, even after the canister ran out. It would not change his current predicament. He was still here, on this accursed world, far from the Emperor's light. He turned his back upon the witch, but was unable to move as his vision was suddenly destroyed by a blinding white light and his consciousness fading soon after.

* * *

 **Author's Note: It was a fun one guys, I'm glad around I got to finish it. I'll be starting a new story soon, and a hint as to what it will be is within this chapter. It's, as per usual, a crossover, so leave a comment or something if you'd like.**


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